Université Sétif2

The People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria

Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

Abbas Ferhat University-Setif.

Faculty of Letters and Languages

Department of English

The Impact of Language Anxiety on Academic

Achievement among Learners of EFL:
nd
Case study: 2 year English Language Department
Students at 20 August 1955 Skikda’s University

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the

Magister Degree in Applied Linguistics and language Teaching.

Submitted by: MAATAR Souad Supervised by: Dr. HAMADA Hacene

Board of Examiners

President: Dr. NEMOUCHI ABDELHAK Maître de Conférences A. Université de

Constantine
Supervisor: Dr. HAMADA HACENE Maître de Conférences A. Ens Constantine

Examiner: Dr. BELOUAHEM RIAD Maître de Conférences A. Université de

Constantine

Academic year: 2010/2011

 Université Sétif2

Dedication

I am deeply indebted to my husband and two sons Radji and

Mohamed for their patience, understanding, encouragement and help
during my study. I dedicate my Magister dissertation to them because
they are simply my whole world.

i
 Université Sétif2

Acknowledgments

My deepest respect and gratitude go to Dr. Hamada Hacéne, my supervisor, for guiding
me through each step of my postgraduate study and dissertation process. From him, I gained
knowledge beyond pure academics; he taught me professionalism through his devotion and
persistence in his work. Without his generous help, I would not have successfully completed my
dissertation.

My thanks also go to all my teachers of graduation and post graduation studies, especially
to Pr. H. Saadi, with his knowledge and philosophy of teaching inspired me a lot and enlighten
my way. I owe many thanks to Dr. M. Boukedjane for his consistent assistance, detailed advice in
statistical analysis, intellectual inspiration and constructive suggestions.

Words can not express my gratitude to Miss Lamya khellaf for her computer assistance
and to Pr. françois Pichette from Canada for providing me with several sparse articles. I would
also like to thank all my friends of post graduation promotion especially Ahlem Bouirane and
Chadia Chioukh who kept faith in me, despite all hard times we’ve gone through.

In addition, I would like to extend my special thanks to the members of jury for devoting
a part of their precious time for reading and evaluating this work.

Last but not least, I am grateful to all my brothers for their support. Lastly I owe my
deepest gratefulness to my parents. Although they do not have the slightest idea about my
dissertation, they nevertheless give me their warm supports, prayers and consideration. They
were always there to accompany me through hard and sweet times during all my life.

Above all I would like to thank ALLAH for helping me in all my endeavours.

ii
 Université Sétif2

Abstract
This study aimed to explore foreign language (FL) anxiety experienced by university students in
Algeria. Research has shown that affective variables do not operate independently of one another;
instead, the causal relationships among them are complicated. Moreover, the environment where
language learning takes place is paramount to the whole educational process. Consequently, we
hypothesize that if personal and instructional factors related to foreign language anxiety are
properly investigated, having as a purpose to reducing it, then learners’ academic achievement
will be probably better. To confirm the cited hypothesis, a total of 51 second- year English
language subjects at 20 August 1955 Skikda University participated in this study. The
background questionnaire, the questionnaire of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale,
Self-perceived Proficiency Scale, Motivation Scale, Anxiety towards In-Class Activity
Questionnaire, and Anxiety towards Test Types Evaluation were used in the study. The data was
analyzed with multiple research methods including descriptive analysis, correlation analysis,
independent-samples t-test analysis, and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Statistical analysis of
the data has yielded the following findings: First, the results revealed that there existed different
levels of FL anxiety in the 2nd year English language students at 20 August 1955 Skikda
University, Algeria. Twenty-seven percent of the subjects showed high-level FL anxiety; 59%
showed medium-level FL anxiety; and 14% showed low-level FL anxiety. Among the four
categories of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale, the most anxiety that the subjects
experienced was communication apprehension followed by test anxiety. Second, six personal
sources (i.e., personality, communicative competence, English achievement, motivation, self-
perceived proficiency in English, and the amount of time spent in studying English after class per
week) were found statistically to have significant correlation with students’ FL anxiety levels, but
three variables (i.e., gender, baccalaureate stream, and residential region) showed no significant
correlation with FL anxiety. Third, this study indicated that classroom activities, teachers’
behaviors and characteristics, and the types of tests were the main sources arousing 2nd year
English language students’ FL anxiety. Finally, several pedagogical strategies were offered
according to the findings in this study: (1) helping students build a healthy self-perceived
proficiency in English, (2) using a wider range of measurements in evaluating students, (3)
arousing students’ motivation in English learning, (4) creating a low-anxious classroom, and (5)
changing teachers’ role and beliefs.

iii
 Université Sétif2

List of Abbreviations

FL: foreign language

ESL: English as a Second Language

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

FLA: Foreign language Anxiety

FLCAS: Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale

ATIAQ: Anxiety Towards In-class Activity Questionnaire

SPSS: Social Package for Social Sciences

CA: Communicative Apprehension

SLA: Second Language Acquisition

LCDH Linguistic Coding Deficit/ Differences Hypothesis

AMBT: Attitude/Motivation Battery Test

LMD: Licence, Master, Doctorate

iv
 Université Sétif2

List of tables

Table 1: General information about survey respondents…………….…………………………80

Table 2: Summary of the FLCAS scores of the present study………………………………….95

Table 3: English anxiety level of subjects……………………………...……………………….96

Table 4: Different categories of anxiety on FLCAS questionnaire……………………………..97

Table 5: Percentage of fifteen items on which students agree & strongly agree………………..98

Table 6: t-test of Fl anxiety level for gender, baccalaureate stream, and region………..……..100

Table 7: Fl anxiety level among three groups of different time spent in studying English……101

Table 8: ANOVA of time spent learning English level among three anxiety groups……..…..101

Table 9: FL anxiety level for different English achievement………………………………….102

Table 10: ANOVA of Fl anxiety level for different English achievement…………………….102

Table 11: FL anxiety level for different communicative competence……………………...….104

Table 12: ANOVA of FL anxiety level for different communicative competence……...…….104

Table 13: Fl anxiety level for different personality……………………………………………105

Table 14: ANOVA of Fl anxiety level for different personality……………………...……….105

Table 15: Self-perceived proficiency level among three anxiety groups……………………...107

Table 16: ANOVA of Self-perceived proficiency level among three anxiety groups…………107

Table 17: Motivation level among three anxiety groups…………………………...………….108

Table 18: ANOVA of Motivation level among three anxiety groups…………………………108

Table 19: Pearson’s correlation of FL anxiety & personal factors…………………………….110

Table 20: Activities arranged by anxiety level………………………………………………...112

Table 21: Instructors’ behaviors and characteristics related to an increase in FL anxiety…….114

Table 22: Instructors’ behaviors and characteristics related to FL anxiety reduction………...115

Table 23: FL anxiety towards test types……………………………………………………….117

v
 Université Sétif2

List of figures

Figure 1: Tobias’s model of the effects of anxiety on learning from instruction…………...….58

Figure 2: correlation between foreign language anxiety and time spent learning English out of
class per week…………………..………………………………………………………………101

Figure 3: correlation between foreign language anxiety and achievement……………...…….103

Figure 4: correlation between foreign language anxiety and communicative competence……104

Figure 5: correlation between foreign language anxiety and personality……………………...106

Figure 6: correlation between foreign language anxiety and self-perceived proficiency……...107

Figure 7: correlation between foreign language anxiety and motivation……………………...109

Figure 8: correlation between foreign langue anxiety and self-perceived proficiency, motivation,
time spent in studying English language out of classroom per week, achievement, personality,
and communicative competence………………………………………………………………..110

Figure 9: Most important strategies...…………………………………..………… (Appendix G)

vi
 Université Sétif2

CONTENTS OF THE DISSERTATION

Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1
1. Background and Motivation of the Study ......................................................................... 2
2. The Purpose of the Study .................................................................................................. 4
3. Research Questions ........................................................................................................... 5
4. Research Hypothesis ........................................................................................................ 5
5. Significance of the Study................................................................................................... 5
6. Theoretical Assumptions of Foreign Language Anxiety................................................... 6
7. Methodological Procedure................................................................................................. 8
8. Operational Definition of Terms ....................................................................................... 9
9. Limitation of the Study .................................................................................................... 10
10. Structure of the Dissertation .......................................................................................... 10
CHAPTER ONE Anxiety and Related Issues ................................................................. 12
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 14
1. Complex Definitions of Anxiety ..................................................................................... 16
1.1 Individual Differences ................................................................................................... 16
1.2 Problems with the Concept ............................................................................................ 18
1.3 Foreign Language Anxiety & Foreign Language Learning .......................................... 24
1.4 Difference between L1 Anxiety & L2/FL Anxiety ....................................................... 26
2. Approaches to the Study of Anxiety inSecond/ Foreign Language Learning ................. 27
3. Nature of Anxiety ............................................................................................................ 29
4. Types of Anxiety ............................................................................................................. 30
4.1 Trait Anxiety ................................................................................................................. 30
4.2 Situation- specific Anxiety ............................................................................................ 30
4.3 State Anxiety ................................................................................................................. 31
5. Second or Foreign Language Anxiety ............................................................................. 31
5.1 Forms of Language Anxiety: Facilitating versus Debilitating ...................................... 32
5.2 Components of Foreign Language Anxiety and Related Causal Factors ...................... 33
5.2.1 Communication Apprehension (CA) .......................................................................... 33
5.2.2 Test Anxiety ............................................................................................................... 36
5.2.3 Fear of Negative Evaluation ....................................................................................... 36
6. Correlates of Foreign Language Anxiety ........................................................................ 38

vii
 Université Sétif2

6.1 Correlates Associated with Learners’ Variables ........................................................... 38

6.1.1 Self Perceptions .......................................................................................................... 39
6.1.2 Learners’ Beliefs about Language Learning .............................................................. 40
6.1.3 Language Proficiency ................................................................................................. 41
6.1.4 Motivation .................................................................................................................. 42
6.1.5 Learning Strategies ..................................................................................................... 43
6.1.6 Personality Trait ......................................................................................................... 43
6.1.7 Social Anxiety ............................................................................................................ 44
6.1.8 Gender…. ................................................................................................................... 45
6.2 Correlates Aassociated with Situational Variables (Instruction)................................... 45
6.2.1 Instructors’ Beliefs about Language Teaching ........................................................... 46
6.2.2 Classroom Procedure .................................................................................................. 46
6.2.3 Competitive Environment .......................................................................................... 47
6.2.4 Test-taking Situation .................................................................................................. 48
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 49
CHAPTER TWO FL Anxiety Effects on Learning ........................................................ 51
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 52
1. Language Anxiety and Language Learning Process ....................................................... 53
1.1 Input...............................................................................................................................54
1.2 Processing ...................................................................................................................... 55
1.3 Output ............................................................................................................................ 57
2. The Effect of FL Anxiety on the Four Skills, Vocabulary and Grammar ....................... 58
2.1 FL Anxiety in the Listening Skill .................................................................................. 59
2.2 FL Anxiety in the Speaking Skill .................................................................................. 60
2.3 FL Anxiety in the Reading Skill .................................................................................... 62
2.4 FL Anxiety in the Writing Skill..................................................................................... 64
2.5 FL Anxiety and Vocabulary Learning ........................................................................... 64
2.6 FL Anxiety and Grammar Learning .............................................................................. 67
3. Manifestation of Foreign Language Anxiety .................................................................. 68
4. Ways of Creating a Low- anxiety Classroom.................................................................. 69
4.1 Students’ Strategies for Coping with Anxiety ............................................................... 69
4.2 Creating a Friendly and Supportive Learning Environment ......................................... 72
4.3 Computer-mediated Communication Approach............................................................ 74
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 75

viii
 Université Sétif2

CHAPTER THREE Research Design and Data Collection ........................................... 77

Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 78
1. Research Context ............................................................................................................. 78
2. Participants ...................................................................................................................... 79
3. Research Design .............................................................................................................. 80
4. Instruments of Research .................................................................................................. 82
4.1 Background Questionnaire. ........................................................................................... 82
4.2 Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) ................................................ 82
4.2.1 Measurement of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety ............................................ 82
4.2.2. Description.................................................................................................................83
4.3 The AMBT (Attitude/Motivation Test Battery) adapted as (the Motivation Scale) .... 85
4.4 Anxiety Towards In-Class Activity Questionnaire (ATIAQ) ....................................... 86
4.5 Self-perceived Proficiency Scale ................................................................................... 87
4.6 Anxiety towards Test Types Evaluation........................................................................ 88
5. Procedures ....................................................................................................................... 88
6. Data Analysis Method ..................................................................................................... 89
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 90
CHAPTER FOUR Interpretation of results and implications ...................................... 92
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 94
1. Major Study Results and Findings ................................................................................. 94
1.1 Analysis of the FLCAS Results ..................................................................................... 94
1.1.1 Descriptive Statistics of FLCAS Scores ..................................................................... 95
1.1.2 Four FL anxiety Categories of FLCAS. ..................................................................... 96
1.1.3 Analysis of FLCAS Items. ......................................................................................... 97
1.2 Analysis of Anxiety at Different Personal Factors ........................................................ 99
1.2.1 Gender, Baccalaureate Stream, and Region. .............................................................. 99
1.2.2 Time Spent in Studying English. .............................................................................. 100
1.2.3 English Achievement................................................................................................ 102
1.2.4 Communicative Competence.................................................................................... 103
1.2.5 Personality Trait ....................................................................................................... 105
1.2.6 Self-perceived Proficiency. ...................................................................................... 106
1.2.7 Motivation ................................................................................................................ 108
1.2.8 Pearson’s Correlation between Anxiety and Personal Factors. ................................ 109
1.3 Analysis of the Relationship between Anxiety and Instructional Factors ................... 111

ix
 Université Sétif2

1.3.1 Anxiety towards In-class Activity. ........................................................................... 111

1.3.2 Instructors’ Behaviors and Characteristics. .............................................................. 113
1.3.3 Analysis of Relationship between Anxiety and Test Types. .................................... 116
2. Answering Research Questions and Hypothesis ........................................................... 118
3. Pedagogical Implications............................................................................................... 120
3.1 Helping Students Build a Healthy Self-perceived Proficiency in English. ................. 120
3.2 Use a Wider Range of Measurements in Evaluating Students. ................................... 121
3.3 Arousing Students’ Motivation in English Learning................................................... 121
3.4 Creating a Low-anxious Classroom. ........................................................................... 122
3.5 Changing Teachers’ Role and Beliefs. ........................................................................ 123
4. Limitations of the Study and Future Perspectives ........................................................ 125
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 126
General Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 128

References………….…………………………………………………………….……...134

x
 Université Sétif2

Introduction

1. Background and Motivation of the Study ......................................................................... 2

2. The Purpose of the Study .................................................................................................. 4
3. Research Questions ........................................................................................................... 5
4. Research Hypothesis ........................................................................................................ 5
5. Significance of the Study................................................................................................... 5
6. Theoretical Assumptions of Foreign Language Anxiety................................................... 6
7. Methodological Procedure................................................................................................. 8
8. Operational Definition of Terms ....................................................................................... 9
9. Limitation of the Study .................................................................................................... 10
10. Structure of the Dissertation .......................................................................................... 10

1
 Université Sétif2

1. Background and Motivation of the Study

Accompanying the increasing importance of the communicative function of

English, more educators have departed from the traditional grammar translation method,

teacher-centered approach and have begun to adopt a task-based, student-centered approach

in class because these teaching approaches focus on the variations of learners’ learning

styles and concern about students’ affective states. According to considerable theoretical

studies, the influences of the affective side of a learner which contribute to success or

failure in FL learning have been supported (Brown et al, 2001; Horwitz, 2000; Sparks

& Ganschow, 1991). The evidence shows that the students’ affective state plays a major

role in their learning difficulty and on the effect of the problem or both.

As Arnold and Brown (1999) claim, a broad understanding of affective factors leads

to a more effective language learning because attention will be drawn to how we can

overcome problems created by negative emotions and how we can transform those negative

emotions into more positive feelings, and then facilitate the improvement of both language

learning and teaching. Thus, it is essential for teachers and educators to pay attention to

students’ feelings and emotional reactions, and they need be prepared to flexibly change

their teaching plans based on students’ needs and reactions. Among affective factors, the

role of anxiety, which is one of the negative emotions, is particularly assumed to be

important in determining students’ achievements in FL classes. Proponents of this

hypothesis describe FL learners as having a ‘mental block’ which hinders their ability to

learn (Sparks& Ganschow, 1991).

Over the last decades, a great body of studies has been conducted on language

anxiety in FL and second language learning (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986; MacIntyre

& Gardner, 1991a; Scovel, 1978). Based on empirical research, language learning

situations are specifically prone to anxiety arousal (Price, 1991).

2
 Université Sétif2

Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) viewed language anxiety as a particular form of

anxiety because there was something unique in the language learning processes which

made some students nervous. Reviewing the literature shows that there were six categories

of potential sources of FL anxiety: personal and interpersonal anxiety, learner beliefs and

attitudes, instructor beliefs, instructor-learner interaction, classroom procedures, and testing

(young, 1991). Moreover, the correlates of FL anxiety were widely ranged from highly

personal to procedural (or situational). The factors of self-esteem, individual differences in

learning, classroom activities, teaching methods, and instructor-learner interactions all

could be categorized as sources that might contribute to FL anxiety (Oxford, 1999a).

Contrary to what is happening abroad, fewer studies in Algeria have been conducted

and acknowledged the effects of anxiety on foreign language learning. Only some empirical

studies have touched on the sources of anxiety, and none of them have focused on the

students of 20 August 1955 Skikda’s University. It happened that the researcher is in

a permanent contact with those students as a teacher and a manager of the intensive

language learning centre at the aforementioned University; from some friendly

conversations with them, truth shows that most of the students are unhappy foreign

language learners. They feel frustrated, pressured, and nervous during some English

classes. These uncomfortable feelings can be triggered by the instructors’ attitudes or

characteristics. They suffer high levels of language anxiety in class when the teachers are

rigid, serious and authoritarian, or when they are ridiculed and humiliated by these grim

teachers. On the other hand, they feel relaxed, motivated and less anxious when having the

humorous, easy-going, amiable, and patient teachers’ classes. They would do their best and

perform well in classes. These experiences demonstrate that there might be a certain degree

of connection between learners’ foreign language anxiety and instructors’ behaviors and

personalities. Besides learners variables such as self-esteem, beliefs, motivation, language

3
 Université Sétif2

proficiency and so on, the current study attempts to examine to what extent the teachers

influence students’ foreign language anxiety as these feelings impede their ability to

perform successfully in English learning. So it is quite necessary to have an investigation

on FL anxiety, identify its contributing factors, and develop useful strategies to control it,

or at least reduce it.

2. The Purpose of the Study

While the previous Research has done much to statistically demonstrate the

existence of second/foreign language anxiety, many researchers view that “even without

empirical proof; the mere awareness of foreign language anxiety, even on an intuitive level,

is testimony enough to its existence and worthy of fuller investigation” (Shams, 2006,

p.14). Reviewing past research, Ohata (2005) concludes that language anxiety cannot be

defined in a linear manner but rather it can be better constructed as a complex

psychological phenomenon influenced by many different variables.

For this reason an investigation of some learners’ variables such as learning beliefs,

personality trait, self-efficacy, learning strategies, language proficiency, social anxiety and

gender on one hand and situational variables such as instructor’s beliefs, classroom

activities and teaching methods, competitive environment and test-taking situation on the

other hand may help to have a better understanding of this construct and its correlates,

discover the general state of foreign language anxiety among 2nd year English Language

students at 20 August 1955 Skikda’s University in Algeria and explore how teachers and

students can cope with it and minimize its negative impact.

4
 Université Sétif2

3. Research Questions

Based on the study’s purpose, this dissertation hopes to answer the following

questions:

1. What is the general level of foreign language anxiety among 2nd year English language

students at 20 August 1955 Skikda’s University?

2. What personal factors are related to foreign language anxiety?

3. What instructional factors are related to foreign language anxiety?

4. What strategies could teachers and students use to reduce foreign language anxiety?

4. Research Hypothesis

The present research is based on the following hypothesis:

Anxiety existing within the learners of EFL is a natural matter, where the combination of

different factors whether external as the classroom and the teacher, or internal as gender

and the other different psychological factors like motivation, communication competence

and personality…etc. generates this feeling of anxiety. But exceeding a certain level, it is

known as having a negative impact on the learners. So, we hypothesize that if the real

causes of language anxiety either personal or situational are properly investigated, having

as a purpose to reduce its rate within the classroom, then students’ performance and

academic achievement will be probably better.

5. Significance of the Study

This study may have some implications on English teaching. First, it may attract

teachers’ attention to the students’ English learning anxiety and lead them to find more

ways to reduce it. Second, the results of this study intend to find out the potential sources of

5
 Université Sétif2

English language anxiety, which can help teachers adjust their instruction and cultivate an

agreeable learning environment to deal with language anxiety. Finally, this study may

contribute to further investigation in English teaching and learning in Algeria.

6. Theoretical Assumptions of Foreign Language Anxiety

There are three theoretical assumptions described as follows:

1. Most learners’ foreign language anxiety comes from certain types of in-class activities.

Many of these activities are oral-oriented in-class practices. The learners are afraid of

expressing their ideas in foreign language. This assumption can be explained by

Young (1990). Young states that a variety of complex psychological constructs causes

foreign language anxiety such as communication apprehension, social anxiety, and self-

esteem. Communication apprehension is defined as "an individual's level of fear of anxiety

associated with either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons"

(Richmond & McCroskey, 1989). It describes that those people who suffer communication

apprehension are unwilling to communicate with others. Talking with other people in

English troubles these learners. The second source of second language learners’

communication anxiety is social anxiety. Social anxiety is an anxiety that results from the

prospect or presence of personal evaluation in real or imagined social situations

(Schlenker & Leary, 1982). Second/ foreign language learners feel nervous whenever they

are motivated to make a desired impression on others, but are not certain that they will do

so (Chen, 2002). Their motivation and the doubt of wondering if they can do so arise their

social anxiety. Second language learners’ self-esteem can also be seen as a major reason of

communication anxiety. Coopersmith (1967) says that Self-esteem is a personal judgment

of worthiness that is expressed in the attitudes that individuals hold towards themselves.

Self-esteem affects learners’ second language acquisition. In second language learning,

6
 Université Sétif2

those unsuccessful language learners often have lower self-esteem than successful language

learners. What’s more, having low self-esteem will cause language learners’ speaking

anxiety. Price (1991) points out that having low self-esteem tends to suffer high levels of

language anxiety. The learners with low self-esteem are worried about their peers’ thought,

or they fear peers’ criticism. Thus, these learners dare not to speak and are anxious when

they meet oral tasks (Krashen, 1980, cited in Young, 1991). Consequently, the oral-oriented

in-class activities are highly possible to cause learners’ second language anxiety.

2. Second language instructors’ characteristics and behaviors do affect learners’ language

anxiety in the classroom. Young (1990) points out that instructors’ negative evaluation,

harsh error correction, public criticism and authoritarian causes learners’ second language

anxiety. Some teachers tend to evaluate students negatively or criticize students in public.

This kind of teachers causes student’s anxiety. To the learners, those teachers create a

horrible social environment. The students feel nervous during the classes, and then they are

unwilling to attend the classes. On the contrary, those friendly, humorous and patient

teachers create a warm social environment for students. Those teachers help students

reduce their language anxiety in the classroom. In a nutshell, second language instructors

influence learners’ language anxiety. Students’ language anxiety is reduced when the

teachers are kind, interesting, and positive. Those rigid, stubborn, authoritarian, unfriendly

and emotional teachers increase students’ language anxiety.

3. Since foreign language anxiety is highly related to achievement, it’s important to help

foreign language learners to reduce language anxiety

(Gardner, Tremblay, & Masgoret, 1997). After analyzing the sources of English language

anxiety, the researcher of this study attempts to offer some solutions for instructors and

learners to reduce anxiety. Most learners suffer high levels of foreign language anxiety due

to the oral-oriented in-class activities. They fear that if they can’t speak fluently or express

7
 Université Sétif2

their ideas smoothly in class, they will be ridiculed by their classmates or teachers.

Moreover, many learners hold wrong beliefs. Some of them believe that having the same

accent as native speakers is paramount; others believe that English can be mastered within

a few years. These illusions need to be broken. This study will offer certain ways not only

for instructors to enhance learners’ oral abilities and try to help learners reduce language

anxiety but also for learners to get rid of some wrong concepts about learning English

language.

7. Methodological Procedure

Anxiety, along with the other individual and environmental factors bear a heavy

responsibility in determining the learner’s success as far as EFL learning is concerned. The

impact of environmental and individual factors may be anxiety-provoking ones. The latter

factor, which is anxiety, is a key one to learners’ success. The teacher on the other hand

plays a major role in reducing or increasing the feelings of anxiety experienced by his

students.

The study used both a causal comparative research approach (t test and ANOVA) and

a correlation research approach (Pearson correlation) as its research design. About 51

second year students of English language at 20 August 1955 Skikda’s University in Algeria

participated in this investigation. They were required to answer a battery of questionnaires

through four successive days (30 minutes per day). Six instruments were used in the present

study, including Background Questionnaire, Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale

(FLCAS), Self-perceived Proficiency Scale, Motivation Scale, Foreign Language Anxiety

towards In-Class Activity Questionnaire (ATIAQ), and Anxiety towards Test Types

Evaluation. All data analysis has been performed with the system of Statistical Package for

Social Science (SPSS 17.0).

8
 Université Sétif2

8. Operational Definition of Terms

To make clear the focus of the study, the following terms are defined.

L1 (First Language): refers to the native language of the speaker.

EFL: EFL is an abbreviation for English as a foreign language. It refers to English learning

by nonnative speakers living in a non-English-speaking country (Richards, Platt, & Platt,

1992).

In-class Activities: Generally speaking, an activity refers to anything that learners do in the

classroom. Specifically, in-class activity is defined as “a reasonably unified set of student

behaviours, limited in time, preceded by some direction from the teacher, with a particular

objective” (Brown et al, 2001, p.129). Group discussions, peer-editing, oral presentations,

games, drills, role-plays, listening exercises, and drama are all types of in-class activities.

Language proficiency: According to Richards, Platt and Platt (1992), language

proficiency refers to the degree of skills with which a person can use a language, such as

how well a person can read, write, speak, or understand language. In the study, the

students’ language proficiency refers to their English proficiency.

Communicative competence: The term, communicative competence is the aspect of our

competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings

interpersonally with specific contexts (Brown, 1994, p. 227).

Self-efficacy: Self-efficacy is a judgment of one’s ability to organize and execute given

types of performances (Bandura, 1997).

Foreign Language Anxiety: Foreign language anxiety, which has been defined as “the

feeling of tension and apprehension specifically with second language contexts, including

speaking, listening, and learning” (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1994, p. 284), can strike at

different stages in the learning and speech production process. In this study, it generally

9
 Université Sétif2

refers to the anxiety students perceived during their courses within the classroom setting.

In this study the terms: language anxiety, foreign language anxiety and foreign language

classroom anxiety are used interchangeably and all have the meaning of English language

classroom anxiety.

9. Limitation of the Study

The study focused on the relationship between foreign language classroom anxiety,

personal and situational variables of English language students at 20 August 1955 Skikda’s

University. In order to carefully manage the study; it was delimited to only 2nd year

students of the above mentioned university. It would have generated more generalized

information if it had included wider area samples of different study years and universities

through out the country.

10. Structure of the Dissertation

Research proposal has been presented as an introduction to the study. The whole work

is organized into four main chapters.

The first chapter introduces a general overview regarding the problematic concept of

anxiety from several viewpoints (psychology & SLA research) to put the reader in picture

and prevent ambiguity. First, it will attempt to define language anxiety according to the

recurrent literature research. Then, it is going to present its types, forms and components in

relation to the probable causal factors. Finally, correlates of foreign language anxiety

associated with some personal and instructional factors within classroom are going to be

discussed.

10
 Université Sétif2

Chapter two will almost be devoted to the effects of language anxiety on the process of

learning, and how it may hinder the acquisition of the four skills, vocabulary and grammar

and consequently, it will negatively affect academic achievement. Language anxiety is

manifested in many ways in learners, thus, attentive instructors have to detect it and find

solutions to alleviate it or at least to cope with it in order to create a healthy learning

environment.

Chapter three is going to describe the methodology used within the study; because of

the complex relationships among personal factors, the study has used descriptive statistics,

causal comparative research approach (t test and ANOVA), and correlation research

approach (Pearson correlation) as a research design.

Chapter four will give the analysis of collected data and overall results, provides the

interpretation of all findings and statistics and answer research questions and hypothesis. In

addition, it will formulate some possible pedagogical implications and draws limitations of

this study as well as expected areas of investigation from future studies.

11
 Université Sétif2

CHAPTER ONE
Anxiety and Related Issues

Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 14
1. Complex Definitions of Anxiety ..................................................................................... 16
1.1 Individual Differences ................................................................................................... 16
1.2 Problems with the Concept ............................................................................................ 18
1.3 Foreign Language Anxiety & Foreign Language Learning .......................................... 24
1.4 Difference between L1 Anxiety & L2/FL Anxiety ....................................................... 26
2. Approaches to the Study of Anxiety in Second/ Foreign Language Learning ................ 27
3. Nature of Anxiety ............................................................................................................ 29
4. Types of Anxiety ............................................................................................................. 30
4.1 Trait Anxiety ................................................................................................................. 30
4.2 Situation- specific Anxiety ............................................................................................ 30
4.3 State Anxiety ................................................................................................................. 31
5. Second or Foreign language Anxiety .............................................................................. 31
5.1 Forms of Language Anxiety: Facilitating versus Debilitating ...................................... 32
5.2 Components of Foreign Language Anxiety and Rrelated Causal Factors .................... 33
5.2.1 Communication Apprehension (CA) .......................................................................... 33
5.2.2 Test Anxiety ............................................................................................................... 36
5.2.3 Fear of Negative Evaluation ....................................................................................... 36
6. Correlates of Foreign Language Anxiety ........................................................................ 38
6.1 Correlates Associated with Learners’ Variables ........................................................... 38
6.1.1 Self Perceptions .......................................................................................................... 39
6.1.2 Learners’ Beliefs about Language Learning .............................................................. 40
6.1.3 Language Proficiency ................................................................................................. 41
6.1.4 Motivation .................................................................................................................. 42
6.1.5 Learning Strategies ..................................................................................................... 43
6.1.6 Personality Trait ......................................................................................................... 43
6.1.7 Social Anxiety ............................................................................................................ 44
6.1.8 Gender…. ................................................................................................................... 45
6.2 Correlates Associated with Situational Variables (Instruction) .................................... 45

12
 Université Sétif2

6.2.1 Instructors’ Beliefs about Llanguage Teaching .......................................................... 46

6.2.2 Classroom Procedure .................................................................................................. 46
6.2.3 Competitive Environment .......................................................................................... 47
6.2.4 Test-taking Situation .................................................................................................. 48
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 49

13
 Université Sétif2

Introduction

The focus of research in second language acquisition (SLA) has been basically on

issues such as language pedagogy, contents of pedagogical curricula and probable ways to

improve them. Thus, the findings of this research remained restricted to the learning and

teaching of the language itself, in other words to the cognitive aspect with minor attention

being paid to the affective variables learners bring with them into language classroom. It

was only in the 1970s, that the SLA researchers – influenced by the domain of psychology-

began to study the significant role played by personality and motivational variables in

second language acquisition (Shams, 2006). They argued that, in order to gain a holistic

understanding of this process, learners’ affective variables need to be taken into account to

cater for their needs and interests (Samimy, 1994). Furthermore, as the emphasis of

learning has shifted from the narrow concern for developing learners’ linguistic

competence to the need for communicative competence, learners are challenged to be able

to speak in the target language spontaneously in various social contexts. In order to meet

this challenge, attention has diverted to studying the role of affective variables such as

learning strategies, motivation, personality traits , etc… that can hinder the process of

learning a second/ foreign language. Among these affective variables, learner anxiety has

been recognised as an important area of investigation in second language acquisition

because of the negative impact it can have on students’ performance and success. Language

anxiety ranks high among factors influencing language learning, whatever the learning

setting (Oxford, 1999a), and has become central to any examination of factors contributing

to the learning process and learner achievement. Arnold and Brown (1999, p.9) contend

that anxiety is “quite possibly the affective factor that most pervasively obstructs the

learning process and that there are few, if any, disciplines in the curriculum which lay

themselves open to anxiety production more than foreign or second language learning”.

14
 Université Sétif2

This chapter reviews literature from one specific perspective: anxiety as

a psychological construct and its probable causal factors in an educational setting. First of

all, some related problems with the concept have been discussed, and the difference

between L1 anxiety and L2/FL anxiety are particularly presented as an introduction to

prevent confusion in the reader’s mind. Then, we shed light on the two main approaches to

the study of anxiety construct, give some definitions concerning the nature of anxiety as

well as its types and establish the conceptual foundations of the construct of ‘language

anxiety’ in terms of its three components: communication apprehension, test anxiety and

fear of negative evaluation. These components have been discussed with relation to some

factors that cause language anxiety while learning the target language.

To study language anxiety, it is fundamental to gain some understanding on the

concept of affect. This is due to the fact that anxiety is only one of the many affective

variables among other intrinsic learner’s variables (Scovel, 1978). Affect in language

learning involves various aspects of emotion, feeling, and attitude of the learner. Affective

sides of language learners may influence their language learning processes, positively or

negatively. Thus, a right understanding of affect in foreign language learning can lead to

more effective language learning and teaching.

As it is agreed upon, language anxiety phenomenon is a complex psychological

construct; in a learning setting, it has to be investigated from different perspectives. In this

study our focus of interest has been devoted to: firstly, correlates associated with some

learners’ variables such as self-esteem, beliefs, language proficiency, language strategies,

social anxiety, motivation, trait personality and gender. Secondly, correlates associated

with situational variables like instructors’ beliefs about teaching, classroom procedure as

in-class activities, teaching methods, in addition to competitive environment and test-taking

15
 Université Sétif2

situations. Despite being hard to characterize and assess, these variables are vital to the

learning process and can either promote or hamper FL learner’s success.

Generally speaking, this chapter has mainly been concerned by anxiety

conceptualization despite the complexity and ambiguity of the construct; It attempts in the

first place to define its types, forms as facilitative or debilitative and components in relation

to the probable causal factors. Then, correlates of foreign language anxiety associated with

some personal and instructional variables within educational settings have mainly been

investigated.

1. Complex Definitions of Anxiety

In L2/FL learning, attention has been given to anxiety because of its considerable

effects on L2/FL learners. The initial research, however, produced mixed and perplexing

results regarding the relationship between anxiety and L2/FL learning. Inconsistent

conclusions were drawn as to the effect of anxiety on L2/FL learning is due to the fact that

anxiety is “neither a simple nor well-understood psychological construct” (Scovel, 1978).

This variation and even confusion in conceptualization of language anxiety creates different

approaches to study this phenomenon.

1.1 Individual differences

From the early beginning of its existence, the field of psychology has been trying to

achieve two different and perhaps contradictory objectives: to delve into the general

principles that rule the human mind and to explore the uniqueness of the individual mind.

The latter direction has formed an independent subdiscipline referred to as individual

difference research. As the term suggests, individual differences are characteristics or traits

16
 Université Sétif2

in respect of which individuals may be shown to differ from each other. Perhaps, it would

be easier for researchers to find conclusions and therefore be generalized on all human

beings; so that, their therapy would probably suit everybody. Nevertheless, the affective

constitution of human being ego is more complicated than that. One of the most important

differences between social sciences and natural sciences lies in the existence of individual

differences. Separate pieces of metal treated under the same conditions, will respond in

exactly the same way, whereas, two persons, even twins may vary significantly in response

to stimuli. Accordingly, difference or variability is a basic feature of human beings.

Many researchers find individual differences detrimental and decisive to social

sciences and this is also applicable to the domain of educational studies. As a matter of fact,

second language acquisition (SLA) researchers may become rather perplex with individual

differences when these prevent learners from acquiring a particular language aspect over

time, because there will always be a category of learners to whom some findings and

recommendations do not apply. Many may think that first language acquisition do not

depend on learners’ variability because it almost leads to native-level proficiency in the

language. But contrary to this common belief, research had demonstrated that individual

differences are active even in this domain (Bates, Dale, & Thal, 1995; Shore, 1995)

resulting in different learning styles and meta-cognition, as well as subsequent strengths

and weaknesses in achievement and success in our native language. To learn a second or

foreign language is significantly more diverse and more complicated than acquiring an L1

and a great deal from which stem that difficulty is attributed to the impact of individual

differences. Since the latter are considered as a fuel or an impetus to success, but what do

we really mean by ‘individual differences’?

The construct refers to dimensions of enduring personal characteristics that are

assumed to apply to everybody and on which people differ by degree. Or, in other words,

17
 Université Sétif2

they concern stable and systematic deviations from a normative blueprint (Dorneyi, 2005).

Among individual differences or variables- as it was later on referred to- we can find:

motivation, personality, aptitude, intelligence, learning strategies, learning styles which

were deeply investigated and research has provided conclusive results. But, research on

other individual variables such as anxiety is not comprehensive. Although the construct of

anxiety has important theoretical and practical potential, further research is needed to do it

full justice.

1.2 Problems with the Concept

Some research conceptualized anxiety as part of self-confidence in Clément’s model

(1980) and is therefore often seen as a component of motivation, other considered it as an

emotion, a variant of fear (MacInyre, 2002).Thus, anxiety is reported in the majority of

literature as a complex , ambiguous , and difficult to isolate from other individual variables.

There is no doubt that anxiety affects L2/FL performance, most learners describe

the experience that in an anxiety- provoking climate their L2/FL knowledge often

deteriorates: they forget things that they otherwise know and also make silly mistakes.

According to Arnold and Brown (1999, p.8) “Anxiety is quite possibly the affective factor

that most pervasively obstructs the learning process”. For this reason, it has been in the

limelight of SLA research for decades (Scovel, 1978; Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986;

MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991; Young, 1999). Given the importance and the high profile of

anxiety, it is surprising how ambiguous the conceptualization of the concept becomes when

we go beyond the surface. As mentioned above, there is an overall uncertainty about the

basic category: Is it a motivational component? A personality trait? Or simply an emotion?

18
 Université Sétif2

Furthermore, anxiety is usually not seen as a unitary factor but a complex made up of

constituents that have different characteristics. Psychologists divide anxiety into:

trait anxiety : it refers to a stable predisposition to become anxious in cross-section of

situations and state anxiety : which is the transition, a moment-to moment experience of

anxiety as an emotional reaction to the current situation.

Thus, anxiety is a complex construct with several different facets. However, as

Scovel (2001) describes, in contrast to this multifaceted view, non-specialists tend to equate

anxiety with fear or phobia, and in the language teaching methodological texts the variable

is considered to be a potential enemy that need to be eliminated at all costs. This

perception, according to Scovel and many other researchers, is simply erroneous and

confirms the belief that anxiety is the most misunderstood affective variable of all.

In 1986, Horwitz et al. conceptualized a situation-specific anxiety construct that

they called foreign language anxiety; this construct is relatively independent from other

kinds of general trait-anxiety and specific to the L2/FL learning situation, as MacIntyre

(1999) defines it, language anxiety involves the “worry and negative emotional reaction

aroused when learning or using a second language” (p.27). Once the conceptualization of

foreign language anxiety has been established as far as the relationship between this unique

construct and the learning situation (Horwitz, 2001; MacIntyre, 1999; Gardner and

MaIntyre, 1993; Oxford, 1999a); numerous authors had undertaken research on potential

sources of language anxiety , they suggested that language anxiety might have its origins in

numerous aspects of the language learning situation (e.g. classroom procedure including

unknown material, instructors’ methods, attitudes and beliefs, perceived negative

evaluation on the part of teachers or peers, fear of speaking in the second/ foreign

language…). It would seem logical that a poor capacity for learning languages might also

be a cause of anxiety. As Horwitz (2001, p. 118) points out: “It is easy to conceptualize

19
 Université Sétif2

foreign language anxiety as a result of poor language learning ability. A student does

poorly in language learning and consequently feels anxious about his / her language class”.

However, it may be that anxiety is not only the result of poor language ability and

achievement, but also that anxiety itself may interfere with existing language ability and

therefore be a cause of poor language learning and performance. Supporting this view,

MacIntyre and Gardner (1989) submitted in their evaluation of Horwitz et al’s (1986)

theory that their own results tend to indicate that anxiety leads to deficits in learning and

performance. Later on, the same authors (1991, p. 302) state: “language anxiety

consistently, negatively affects language learning and production”. Researchers have been

interested in exploring its relationships with achievement in the second/ foreign language.

Indeed, Gardner and MacIntyre (1993, p.183) called language anxiety “the best single

correlate of achievement”. According to Horwitz (2001) anxiety has usually been seen to

be detrimental to students’ learning and achievement in second and foreign languages.

Similarly, Spolsky (1989) pointed out that although anxious learners try harder to be

successful; anxiety plays its debilitating role on their performance and achievement. So, is

language anxiety a cause or an effect of poor language achievement?

Since the mid-1990s there has been a debate between Horwitz and Macintyre, on

the one hand, and Sparks and Ganschow, on the other hand. The disagreement between the

two camps is whether anxiety is a cause or an effect of poor performance in a language

class. Horwitz and MacIntyre believe that foreign language anxiety causes poor

performance and achievement. Sparks and Ganschow argue that there may be

a confounding interaction between language skills and anxiety. This argument is based on

their Linguistic Coding Deficit/ Differences Hypothesis (LCDH). So, what is the Linguistic

Coding Deficit/ Differences Hypothesis (LCDH)?

20
 Université Sétif2

According to the hypothesis, one’s capacity to learn an L2/FL is closely related to

the individual’s L1 learning skills, and L2/FL learning difficulties stem in part from native

language difficulties (Sparks, 1995; Sparks and Ganschow, 1991, 1999, 2001; Sparks et al.,

1995, 1998). The central cognitive factor the theory focused on is ‘linguistic coding’, which

refers to L1 literacy skills such as phonological /orthographic processing and word

recognition or decoding (i.e., single-word reading). The LCDH proposes that these abilities

serve as the foundation for learning an L2/FL, and an insufficient level of development in

linguistic coding skills has a profound impact on L2/FL learning ability, resulting in

a serious handicap. Thus, linguistic coding ability can be seen as the primary factor to

consider while dealing with SLA and personal variables.

To recapitulate, native language skills are the foundation for successful foreign

language learning. Therefore, poor performance in language classes is often caused by poor

native language skills, which in turn can cause anxiety. Their LCDH claims that it is

necessary to include a third variable in the discussion, namely, cognitive linguistic skills,

which interact with foreign learning and anxiety (Sparks & Ganschow, 1991; Sparks,

Ganschow, & Javorsky, 2000).

This view has been strongly contested by Horwitz (2000) and MacIntyre (1995a,

1995b), the latter has argued that the main problem with Sparks and Ganschow’s LCDH is

that it focuses exclusively on cognitive ability factors, in terms of the coding of linguistic

stimuli, and thus ignores the context in which language learning occurs (i.e., it does not

consider the socio-cultural factors involved in language learning) and ignores the potential

for social context to influence cognitive processes. He has also criticized Sparks and

Ganschow’s (1995) claim that “anxiety about FL learning is likely to be related to anxiety

about native language learning” (p. 240) by noting that studies have found that language

21
 Université Sétif2

anxiety correlates significantly with foreign language tasks but not with those same tasks

performed in the native language.

Horwitz (2001) pointed out that the number of people who experience foreign

language anxiety is far greater than the percentage of decoding disabilities in the general

population, and that many successful language learners including some language instructors

also experience language anxiety. She concluded that “the LCDH is ultimately based on an

overly simplified view of language learning” (p. 118).

In a more recent paper, Sparks and Ganschow (2007) examined the role of anxiety

with regards to native language and foreign language proficiency over an extended period

of time. They stated that their findings “suggest that students with the highest levels of

anxiety about foreign language learning may also have the lowest levels of native language

skills, especially in reading and spelling” (p. 277) and, therefore, “ foreign language anxiety

is likely to be related to a student’s native language learning skills” (p. 279). They

concluded that “language learning skills play a confounding role in theories that suggest

that anxiety plays a primary role in foreign language proficiency and achievement” (p.279).

MacIntyre & Gardner (19991a) in a survey of anxiety studies in relation to ways of

evaluating language proficiency, with different populations and from various theoretical

viewpoints, posited that “it has been shown that anxiety negatively affects performance in

the second language” (p. 102), but later in the same article, they asserted that “the most

satisfactory solution to the problem of cause and effect is Levitt’s (1980) model of

reciprocal causation. They further explained causation between language anxiety and

achievement in the following way: “After several language experiences with the second

language context, the student forms attitudes that are specific to the situation, that is,

emotions and attitudes about learning a new language. If these experiences are negative,

foreign language anxiety may begin to develop. As negative experiences persist, foreign

22
 Université Sétif2

language anxiety may become a regular occurrence and the student begins to expect to be

nervous and to perform poorly. This foreign language anxiety is based on negative

expectations that lead to worry and emotionality. This leads to cognitive interference from

self-derogatory cognition that produces performance deficits. Poor performance and

negative emotional reactions reinforce the expectations of anxiety and failure, further

anxiety being a reaction to this perceived threat”. (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991a, p. 110).

Several researchers have embraced MacIntyre and Gardner’s viewpoint listed in the

above paragraph, maintaining the existence of a vicious circle relationship or influences

between language anxiety and achievement in the second/foreign language. Saito and

Samimy (1996) found that highly anxious students tended to overstudy, although, this extra

time spent studying did not pay dividends as regards performance, resulting in

“a downward spiral of ever more effort for diminishing results” (p. 246) . However, the

actual amount of impact language anxiety exerts also depends on individual variables.

MacIntyre et al. (1997), in a study about language learners’ self-perceptions of

achievement, submitted that more highly-anxious students are prone to underestimate their

linguistic abilities, and that as these students fail to see that they are making progress in

language learning, and they are more reluctant to speak, thus, damaging their potential

performance through lack of practice, and starting a vicious circle of deficits in which

language anxiety and poorer competence seem to fuel each other. Gregersen and Horwitz

(2002), for example, established a link between language anxiety and perfectionism.

Whereas, Dewaele (2002) posited that high anxiety, especially when linked with high

introversion, can lead to breakdowns in automatic processing and therefore can seriously

hinder L2 fluency. Gardner and MacIntyre (1993) also argued that the effect of anxiety

varies according to the social milieu that would enhance the correlates of language anxiety,

self-perceptions of L2 proficiency, and motivational components. The vast majority of

23
 Université Sétif2

theoretical findings based on FL teachers’ and learners’ experiences acknowledge the

negative impact of language anxiety on behaviors. Consequently, a great deal of effort has

been made in literature to develop methods to reduce anxiety. A relaxed, anxiety-free

environment is found to motivate learning as well as fostering the learners’ capacity to

process tension and classroom stress in a facilitating manner.

Generally speaking, the individual variable ‘language anxiety’ is undoubtedly an

important learner characteristics in L2/FL learning and use, and its impact is consistently

demonstrated by many researchers. However, a considerable variation in the literature has

been noticed in the way anxiety factor has been integrated into research paradigms: It is

sometimes used as a separate independent variable and some other times as a constituent of

a larger construct. This fact, as seen, reflects the ambiguity also found in the psychological

literature concerning the exact position of the construct with other individual variables.

Within all this confusion, ambiguity and sometimes uncertainty, the current study is

an attempt to understand the construct of language anxiety (within the Algerian context)

and to what extent it may hinder the process of learning, furthermore, relationships that

may exist between language anxiety and other individual and situational variables are going

to be investigated within the educational frame as well as proposing ways to reduce it.

1.3 Foreign Language Anxiety & Foreign Language Learning

Eighty percent of the learning difficulties are related to stress. Remove the stress

and remove the difficulties (Stokes & Whiteside, 1984).

Nowadays, learning English language is paramount throughout the world. Every

country is preparing its students for the 21st century where “Standing Still is Falling

Behind”, where there are unprecedented social changes and high technological innovations.

24
 Université Sétif2

Accordingly, the Algerian university has always supported the idea of teaching English to

our students. Within this context of teaching/learning increased attention is being given to

language learners and their perspectives, motivations, beliefs about language learning,

learning styles, learning strategies and instruction environment. Regardless of method, we

know that learners need to adopt attitudes and strategies that pay off in terms of low

anxiety, high motivation and ultimately in the ability to convey information and

communicate ideas and feelings. One of the current challenges in foreign language teaching

is to provide students with a learner-centred, low-anxiety classroom environment.

Research (Aida, 1994; Bailey, 1983; Ely, 1986; Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986;

Horwitz & Young, 1991) has consistently revealed that anxiety can impede foreign

language production and achievement. Indeed, Campell & Ortiz (1991) report perhaps one-

half of all language students experience a startling level of anxiety. Language anxiety is

experienced by learners of both foreign and second language; research related to language

anxiety stated that anxiety posed the potential problems for language learners “because it

can interfere with the acquisition, retention and production of the new language”

(MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991b, p.86).

Krashen (1985) maintained that anxiety inhibits the learner’s ability to process

incoming language and short-circuit the process of acquisition. An interaction is often

found among anxiety, task difficulty, and ability, which interferes at the input, processing,

retrieval, and the output level. If anxiety impairs cognitive function, students who are

anxious may learn less and also may not be able to demonstrate what they have learned.

Therefore, they may experience even more failure, which in turn escalates their anxiety.

Furthermore, Oxford (1991a) reported that serious language anxiety may cause other

related problems with self-esteem, self-confidence, and risk-taking ability, and ultimately

25
 Université Sétif2

hampers proficiency in the second language and automatically affects academic

achievement.

Many learners express their inability and sometimes even acknowledge their failure

in learning a second or a foreign language. These learners may be good at learning other

skills and sciences but, when it comes to learning another language, they claim to have

a ‘mental block’ against it (Horwitz et al, 1986). What, then, hinders or stops them to

succeed in learning a second/ foreign language? In many cases, students’ feeling of stress,

anxiety or nervousness may impede their language learning and performance abilities.

Theorists and second language acquisition (SLA) researchers (Gardner, 1985; Horwitz, et

al., 1986) have frequently demonstrated that these feelings of anxiety are specifically

associated with learning a second/ foreign language, which distinguishes L2/FL learning

from learning other skills or subjects. Recently, both teachers and students are aware and

generally feel strongly that anxiety is a major hurdle to be overcome when learning to use

another language. Learning a language itself is “profoundly unsettling psychological

proposition” because it directly threatens an individual’s ‘self-concept’ and world-view

(Guiora, 1983, cited in Horwitz et al., 1986, p.28). A basic question regarding language

anxiety needs to be addressed in the very beginning, which may otherwise cause some

confusion in the minds of the readers. How is second or foreign language anxiety different

from the language anxiety experienced in the first language?

1.4 Difference between L1 Anxiety & L2/FL Anxiety

Anxiety and speech communication appear to have a strong bond with each other.

Speaking either in L1 or L2/FL in different situations, particularly the situations that

demand public speech tend to be anxiety-provoking. However, the anxiety experienced

26
 Université Sétif2

when speaking in a second/ foreign language seems to be more debilitating than the anxiety

experienced when speaking in the first language. Anxiety while communicating in other

than L1 goes a step further with the addition of the difficulties associated with learning and

speaking a foreign language. In a foreign language, a speaker has to look for suitable lexis,

has to construct an appropriate syntactic structure and needs to use a comprehendible

accent, plus the demanding tasks of thinking and organizing ideas and expressing them at

the same time. Daly ( 1991) while discussing the reactions to second language learning

from the perspective of first language communication apprehension expresses that the

anxiety experienced by many people while communicating in their first language seem to

have many logical ties to second language anxiety.

2. Approaches to the Study of Anxiety in Second/ Foreign Language Learning

There have been essentially two basic approaches to the study of anxiety in

second/ foreign language learning settings. These are labelled (a) The anxiety transfer, and

(b) The unique anxiety (Horwitz & Young, 1991). The assumption behind the first

approach is that the anxiety experienced in an L2/FL context is simply the transfer of other

forms of anxiety into the L2/FL domain. This means that individuals who are generally

anxious or experience anxiety in certain situations are presumed to have a predisposition to

also experience anxiety when learning or using a foreign language. Early studies conducted

on anxiety and language learning used the “anxiety transfer” approach and found

ambiguous and contradictory results, they have been unable to draw a clear picture of how

anxiety affects language learning and performance. Some researchers reported a negative

relationship between language anxiety and achievement, e.g. the higher the anxiety, the

lower the performance (Swain and Burnaby, 1976). Others reported a positive relationship

(Kleinman, 1977), whereas, Chastain (1975) in an attempt to assess the anxiety levels of

27
 Université Sétif2

college beginning learners of French, German and Spanish, he found positive, negative, and

near zero correlations between anxiety and second language learning in the three languages.

Reviews of the early research on language anxiety indicate that anxiety facilitates

performance, that anxiety hampers performance, and that there is no relationship between

anxiety and performance. Studies using this approach showed confusing results, both

within and across studies (Scovel, 1978; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1989) for two reasons.

First, The anxiety measures used for these early studies were borrowed from psychology,

and thus were not language anxiety scales; second , most studies did not clearly define the

construct of anxiety, researchers had “ neither adequately defined foreign language anxiety

nor described its specific effects on foreign language learning” ( Horwitz et al, 1986. p. 28).

In contrast, the second approach to identifying language anxiety proposes that

language learning produces a unique type of anxiety. MacIntyre (1999) stated: “From this

perspective, we can define language anxiety as the worry and negative emotional reaction

aroused when learning or using a second language” (p. 27). He concluded that since the

mid-1980s, research has supported Gardner’s (1985) hypothesis that “a construct of anxiety

which is not general but instead is specific to the language acquisition context is related to

second language achievement” (1985, p. 34). With their seminal article “Foreign Language

Classroom Anxiety”, Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) provided a definition of the

anxiety specifically associated with the language learning context. That is, foreign language

anxiety is not simply the transfer of anxiety from one domain to another, but rather

“a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviours related to

classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process”

(p. 128).

Of the two contrasting perspectives outlined above, the unique anxiety approach

turned out to be the more fruitful one. Although, results in recent studies on anxiety do not

28
 Université Sétif2

seem to agree on the role anxiety plays in the learning process. Today, the notion of

language anxiety should be reconceptualized as something more individualistic, closely

related to individual differences (DeKeyser & Larson-Hall, 2005), needs, and personal

language experiences, and to the concept of self-efficacy as suggested by

Mills et al. (2006). Furthermore, new studies should consider L1 as well as foreign

language skills to examine their relationship with language anxiety as suggested by

Sparks and Ganschow (2007).

3. Nature of Anxiety

Anxiety is a feeling of uneasiness and apprehension, usually about a situation with

uncertain outcomes (Spielberger, 1983). It has been studied by psychologists and educators

from many perspectives; resulting in a voluminous body of literature documenting its

influence on cognitive, affective and behavioural functioning (MacIntyre & Gardner,

1991a). Thus, it has been proven to be one of the most highly examined variables in all of

psychology and education (Horwitz, 2001). Janassen and Grabowski (1993) conceptualized

anxiety as two elements, worry and emotionality. Worry is associated with the cognitive

component and emotionality with disagreeable sensations that one usually experiences for

short duration.

Besides understanding the meaning of anxiety, a description between anxious

language learners and non anxious learners is needed. MacIntyre and Gardner (1991a)

characterize an anxious student as “an individual who perceives the second language as an

uncomfortable experience, who withdraws from voluntary participation, who feels social

pressures not to make mistakes, and who is less willing to try uncertain or novel linguistic

forms”. On the other hand, a non anxious student is usually a person who feels relaxed and

comfortable in the language learning class.

29
 Université Sétif2

4. Types of Anxiety

According to MacIntyre (1999), “Even if one views language anxiety as being

a unique form of anxiety, specific to second language contexts, it is still instructive to

explore the links between it and the rest of the anxiety literature” (p.28).Thus, three main

types of anxiety can be distinguished: trait anxiety, situation-specific anxiety, and state

anxiety.

4.1 Trait Anxiety

It refers to a stable predisposition to become nervous in a wide range of situations

(Speilberger, 1983). People with high level of trait anxiety are generally nervous people;

they lack emotional stability (Goldberg, 1993). On the contrary, people with low trait

anxiety are emotionally stable and tend to be calm and relax. Speilberger further defined

trait anxiety as a probability of becoming anxious in any situation.

4.2 Situation- specific Anxiety

It refers to the persistent and multi-faceted nature of some anxieties (MacIntyre

& Gardner, 1991a). It is aroused by a specific type of situation or event such as public

speaking, test-taking, or class participation (Ellis, 1994). Each situation is different,

therefore, a person may be nervous in one situation but not in others.

30
 Université Sétif2

4.3 State Anxiety

It refers to the moment-to-moment experience of anxiety. This anxiety is the

transient emotional state of feeling nervous that can fluctuate over time and vary in

intensity. It has an effect on learner’s emotion, cognition, and behaviour. Its effect on

emotion results in amplified levels of arousal and more sensitive autonomous nervous

system; people possessing state anxiety feel energized or agitated but anything above

a minimal level of anxiety is regarded as obnoxious arousal. In terms of cognition, when

people experience state anxiety, they are more sensitive to what other people are thinking

of them (Carver & Scheier, 1986). In view of its effect on behaviour, people having state

anxiety tend to evaluate the way they behave, assess the real and imaginary failures and

constantly attempt to contrive ways to escape from the embarrassing situation.

5. Second or Foreign Language Anxiety

Second/ foreign language anxiety is a form of situation- specific anxiety from

a theoretical perspective. MacIntyre (1999 p. 27) defines language anxiety as “the worry

and negative emotional reaction aroused when learning or using a second language”.

Another definition of language anxiety is stated by MacIntyre and Gardner (1994, p. 284)

as “the feeling of tension and apprehension specifically associated with second language

contexts, including speaking, listening, and learning”. Another definition of language

anxiety with respect to foreign language anxiety was given by Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope

(1986, p.128) as “a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviours

related to classroom language learning”. From the three definitions on language anxiety,

the construct is considered to be unique to the language learning process. Language anxiety

can start as transitory episodes of fear in a situation in which students have to perform in

a language. At this stage, anxiety is simply a passing state (Oxford, 1999a). Ideally,

31
 Université Sétif2

language anxiety diminishes over time, as shown in studies of learning French (Desrochers

& Gardner, 1981). Nevertheless, language anxiety does not decrease over time for all

students. If repeated, occurrences of anxiety cause students to associate it with language

performance, anxiety becomes a trait rather than a state (Gardner & MacIntyre, 1993).

Also, once language anxiety has evolved into a lasting trait, it can have pervasive effects on

language learning and language performance (Oxford, 1999a). Hence, when this happens,

an individual learner expects to be anxious in foreign language contexts.

It is crucial to understand the role of anxiety in language learning because it ranks

high among factors that can influence language learning, regardless of whether the setting

is formal or informal. Since anxiety may assist or hamper students’ learning, MacIntyre

(1995a) argued that anxiety plays different roles in language learning processes. The

benefits of moderate levels of anxiety should not be ignored as it can provide an impetus to

performing a task or achieving an objective. So, anxiety can be in two forms: debilitating or

facilitating.

5.1 Forms of Language anxiety: Facilitating versus Debilitating

Scovel (1978) suggested that language anxiety facilitates students’ learning and it

also keeps students on alert. However, Horwitz (1990) found that anxiety is only helpful for

simple learning tasks, not for more complicated learning such as language learning. A few

researchers asserted that a positive mode of anxiety exists, but most studies revealed a

negative relationship between anxiety and performance. Debilitating anxiety hampers

learners’ performance in various ways, both indirectly through worry and self-doubt and

directly by reducing participation and creating overt avoidance of the language (Oxford,

1999a). The concept of debilitating anxiety has been supported by a considerable number

32
 Université Sétif2

of researchers because all their studies indicated the negative correlation of anxiety

especially once associated with performance in speaking and writing tasks ( Young, 1986),

with grades in language courses (Aida, 1994), and with proficiency test performance

(Ganschow, Sparks, Anderson, Javorshy, Skinner & Patton, 1994). Consequently, even if

some research has found in a few cases that high anxiety is associated with positive

outcomes mainly high tests scores (e.g., Brown, Robson, and Rosenkjar, 2001) the

predominance of the evidence supports the debilitating effect, especially for speaking

activities, for that reason, Williams (2008) has even questioned the validity of the initial

research by Yerkes and Dobson, done in 1908, upon which the assumptions of facilitative

anxiety are based.

5.2 Components of Foreign Language Anxiety and Related Causal Factors

Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) argue that foreign language anxiety can be

related to three different components of anxieties which are related to academic and social

evaluation situations: communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative

evaluation. The description of these components shed light on the concept of

second/ foreign language anxiety and provide an insight to the sources or causes it can

originate from.

5.2.1 Communication Apprehension (CA)

One of the most studied topics in the field of speech communication is the tendency

on the part of some people to avoid, and even fear communicating orally (Daly, 1991).

Horwitz et al. (1986) define communication apprehension as “a type of shyness

characterized by fear or anxiety about communicating with people”. Most of the research in

this area is based on McCrosky’s definition of CA as “an individual’s level of fear or

33
 Université Sétif2

anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with another person or

persons” (McCrosky, 1977).

Communication apprehension may be specific to only a few settings (e.g., public

speaking) or may exist in most everyday communication situations, or may even be part of

a general anxiety trait that arises in many facets of an individual’s life (Freidman, 1980).

Much research has dealt with CA in terms of personality trait, but more recently the ideal of

CA has expanded to include both trait and situation views ( McCrosky,1977). General

personality traits such as quietness, shyness, and reticence frequently precipitate CA.

According to Friedman (1980) when the ability and desire to participate in discussion are

present, but the process of verbalizing is inhibited, shyness or reticence is occurring. The

degree of shyness, or range of situations that it affects, varies greatly from individual to

individual, and from situation to situation. Seven factors which could result in a quiet child

(this could be equally give explanation to adult CA) have been identified

(McCrosky, 1984; Bond, 1984):

1) Low intellectual skills, 2) Speech skill deficiencies. 3) Voluntary social introversion,

4) Social alienation, 5) Communication anxiety, 6) Low social self-esteem, 7) Ethnic/

cultural divergence in communication norms. While communication apprehension is but

one of these factors, the others can lead to communication apprehension.

Daly (1991) presents some explanations in the development of CA which can offer

an insight into the issue of understanding what causes language anxiety for ESL/EFL

learners. In the first place, he explains CA in terms of ‘genetic disposition’ indicating that

one’s genetic legacy may be a potential contributor to one’s anxiety, it means that children

seem to be born with certain personality predispositions towards CA. Secondly, he explains

CA in terms of reinforcement and punishment related to the act of communication. He

asserts that individuals who, from early childhood, are greeted with negative reactions from

34
 Université Sétif2

others in response to their attempt to communicate develop a sense that staying quiet is

more highly rewarded than talking. This can suggest that the negative reactions to learners’

participation by language instructors can reinforce their fear of making mistakes and future

attempts to communicate. Another explanation Daly (1991) focuses on is the adequacy of

people’s early communication skills acquisition. Children who receive a rich early

experience of talking are more likely to be less apprehensive than those who receive less

opportunities of communication. The last perspective he emphasizes is that the children

who have been exposed to appropriate social-interactive models of communication are

generally less apprehensive than those who have been exposed to inadequate or less

interactive models. All these explanations suggest that development of CA in individuals’

results from nature or their environment. In case of situational CA, Buss (1980) lists

novelty, formality, subordinate status, conspicuousness, unfamiliarity, dissimilarity, and

degree of attention as the major sources of situational CA.

Communication apprehension obviously plays a large role in second/ foreign

language anxiety. People who are apprehensive speaking in dyads or groups are likely to be

even in more trouble when doing so in second/ foreign language class, where “ in addition

to feeling less in control of the communication situation, they also may feel that their

attempts at oral work are constantly being monitored” ( Horwitz, et al., 1986, p. 27). This

apprehension is explained in relation to the learner’s negative self-perceptions caused by

inability to understand others and make himself understood (MacIntyre& Gardner, 1989).

The emphasis on group work and oral presentation in the modern communicative

classroom can be particularly exacerbating for students who have communication

apprehension (Shams, 2006).

35
 Université Sétif2

5.2.2 Test Anxiety

Test anxiety refers to a type of performance anxiety stemming from a fear of failure

in a test (Brown, 1994). It generally occurs when students have poor performance in the

previous tests. They develop a negative stereotype about tests and have irrational

perceptions in evaluative situations. These students might have an unpleasant test

experience from either language class or other subjects, and they transplanted the unhappy

image to the present English class unconsciously (Chan and Wu, 2004). According to

Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986), test anxious students have false beliefs in language

learning. These students habitually put impractical demands on themselves and feel that

anything less than perfect test performance is a failure. Young (1991) claims that test

anxiety would affect foreign language learners with low levels of oral proficiency more

than those with high levels of proficiency. On the other hand, learners experience more

language anxiety in highly evaluative situations. Consistent evaluations by the instructor in

the foreign language classrooms are rather commonplace and even the brightest and more

prepared students often make errors (Horwitz et al, 1986). So, test anxious learners will

doubtlessly suffer from stress and anxiety frequently. It is important to note that oral testing

has the potential to provoke both test and oral communication anxiety simultaneously in

susceptible students. Generally, test anxiety is a type of performance anxiety deriving from

a fear of failure and evaluative situations, and if it is high it results in failure in exams.

5.2.3 Fear of Negative Evaluation

Fear of negative evaluation is avoidance of evaluative situations and expectation

that others will evaluate them negatively. Learners may be sensitive to evaluation of their

peers. Chan and Wu (2004) explained fear of negative evaluation as apprehension about

others evaluation, distress over their negative evaluations, and expectations that others

would evaluate one self regularly. Although, it is similar to test anxiety, fear of negative

36
 Université Sétif2

evaluation is broader in scope because it is not restricted to test taking situations

(Spolsky, 1989). In addition to situations of tests, it may take place in any social, evaluative

situations such as interviewing for a job or speaking in foreign language class.

MacIntyre and Gardner (1991a) propose that fear of negative evaluation is closely related

to communication apprehension. When students are unsure of what they are saying, fear of

negative evaluation occurs and they may doubt about their ability to make a proper

impression (Chan and Wu, 2004).

In a foreign language context, fear of negative evaluation derives mainly from both

teachers and the students peers because foreign languages require continual evaluation by

the teacher and anxious students may also be intensely susceptible to the evaluation of their

peers (Von Worde, 2003). Students with fear of negative evaluation might adopt the

reaction of avoidance (Chan and Wu, 2004; Spolsky, 1989 ; Casado and Dereshiwsky,

2001). In Aida’s (1994) opinion, students with fear of negative evaluation might sit

passively in the classroom, withdrawing from classroom activities that could otherwise

enhance their improvement of the language skills. In extreme cases to avoid anxiety

situations, causing them to be left behind (Wilson, 2006).

Horwitz et al (1986, pp. 127-128) believe that, although communication

apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation provide useful conceptual

building blocks for a description of second/foreign language anxiety, it is more than just the

conglomeration of these three components: “ We conceive foreign language anxiety as

a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviours related to classroom

language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process”. What

makes language learning a distinct and unique process is its interaction with the concept of

‘self’.

37
 Université Sétif2

To conclude, the conceptual basis of language anxiety with relation to its three

components has been established. All the three components are strongly linked with

learners’ sense of ‘self’, as it is learners’ ‘self’ which is at risk of failure or being negatively

evaluated in any test-like situation, or a situation which requires communication in front of

others. This risk to one’s sense of ‘self’ frequently occurs in second/foreign language

classroom.

6. Correlates of Foreign Language Anxiety

The correlates of foreign language learning anxiety have been a major focus of

research. One area of research has examined learner variables such as self-esteem, beliefs,

gender, learning styles, motivation, and personality factors among others (e.g., Bailey,

Daley, and Onwuegbuzie, 1999; Brown, Robson, and Rosenkjar, 1996; Campbell, 1999;

Dewaele, 2002; Ehrman and Oxford, 1995; Gardner and MacIntyre, 1992; Gardner,

Smythe, and Brunet, 1977; Gregersen and Horwitz, 2002; Oxford, 1999b). Another area of

research has investigated situational variables, for example, course activities, course level,

course organization, instruction environment, and instructor behavior (Jackson, 2002;

Oh, 1992; Oxford, 1999a; Powell, 1991; Samimy, 1989; Spielmann and Radnofsky, 2001;

Young, 1991).

6.1 Correlates Associated with Learners’ Variables

Learners variables associated to FL anxiety include self-perceptions, learners’

beliefs about language learning, language proficiency, motivation, learning strategies,

personality trait, social anxiety and gender.

38
 Université Sétif2

6.1.1 Self Perceptions

According to Horwitz et al. (1986), perhaps no other field of study poses as much of

threat to self-concept as language study does. They advance that any performance in L2 is

likely to challenge an individual’s self-concept as a competent communicator, which may

lead to embarrassment. Self-concept is “the totality of individual’s thoughts, perceptions,

beliefs, attitudes and values having reference to himself as object” (Laine, 1987, p. 15).

This self-concept forms the basis of the distinction, made by Horwitz et al. (1986, p. 128),

between language anxiety and other forms of academic anxieties. They posited, “the

importance of the disparity between the ‘true’ or ‘actual’ self as known to the language

learner and the more limited self as can be presented at any given moment in the foreign

language would seem to distinguish foreign language anxiety from other academic

anxieties such as those associated with mathematics or science”.

The term ‘self-esteem’ has been used in much the same meaning as ‘self-concept’

and has been found to be strongly linked with language anxiety. Krashen (1980, p. 15, cited

in Young, 1991, p. 427) suggests, “the more I think about self-esteem, the more impressed I

am about its impact. This is what causes anxiety in a lot of people. People with low self-

esteem worry about what their peers think; they are concerned with pleasing others. And

that I think has to do a great degree with anxiety”. Individuals who have high levels of self-

esteem are less likely to be anxious than are those with low self-esteem

(Horwitz et al, 1986, p. 129).

To recap, self-esteem is probably considered as the most pervasive aspect of any

human behavior. It could easily be claimed that no successful cognitive or affective activity

could be carried out without some degree of self-esteem, self-confidence, knowledge of

oneself, and belief in one’s own capabilities for that activity (Brown, 2000).

39
 Université Sétif2

6.1.2 Learners’ Beliefs about Language Learning

As language learning poses a threat to learners’ self-concept, in response learners

may generate some particular beliefs about language learning and its use. Research on

‘language anxiety’ suggests that certain beliefs about language learning also contribute to

the student’s tension and frustration in the class (Horwitz et al, 1986, p. 127). For example,

the following is such reported beliefs: “I just know I have some kind of disability: I can’t

learn a foreign language no matter how hard I try”.

Such beliefs have been found to cast a considerable influence upon the ultimate

achievement and performance in the target language. The researchers use terms such as

“erroneous” or “irrational” to indicate certain widely held “beliefs about language learning

which can be a source of anxiety” (Gynan, 1989, cited in Onwuegbuzie et al., 1999,

p. 220). According to Horwitz (1999), it is likely that language learner beliefs have the

potential to affect their learning experiences as well as actions. Some beliefs are likely

influenced by learners’ previous experiences which could be positive or negative.

A negative learning experience might lead learners to embrace irrational and unrealistic

conceptions about language learning. Some of these conceptions are noted by

Horwitz ( 1988, cited in Ohata, 2005, p. 138) such as: 1) Some students believe that

accuracy must be sought before saying anything in the foreign language, 2) some attach

great importance to speaking with excellent native L1-like accent, 3) others believe that it

is not ok to guess an unfamiliar second/ foreign language word, 4) Some hold that

language learning is basically an act of translating from English or any second/foreign

language, 5) some view that two years are sufficient in order to gain fluency in the target

language, 6) some believe that language learning is a special gift not possessed by all.

Similarly, Gynan (1989, cited in Onwuegbuzie et al., 1999) reported that learners believe

that pronunciation is the most important aspect of language learning.

40
 Université Sétif2

These unrealistic perceptions or beliefs on language learning and achievement can

lead to frustration or anger towards learners’ own poor performance in a second/ foreign

language. According to Young (1991), erroneous beliefs about language learning can

contribute greatly to creating language anxiety in students. Similarly, Ohata (2005)

explained that unrealistic beliefs can lead to greater anxiety and frustration, especially when

the beliefs and reality clash. He argues that if the learners start learning an L2/ FL with the

belief that pronunciation is the single most important aspect of language learning, they will

naturally feel frustrated to find the reality of their poor speech pronunciation even after

learning and practicing for a long time. These beliefs are most likely to originate from

learners’ perfectionist nature. The perfectionist learners are convinced they must speak

fluently, with no grammar or pronunciation errors, and as easily as an L1 speaker, these

high or ideal standards create an ideal situation for the development of language anxiety

(Gregersen and Horwitz, 2002).

6.1.3 Language Proficiency

Several studies have discovered the link between anxiety and proficiency

(Aida, 1994; Gardner, 1985; Gardner, Tremblay & Masgoret, 1997). There are significant

differences between high proficiency and low proficiency students in language anxiety; low

proficiency students may have more anxiety than high proficiency students

(Young, 1991). FL anxiety negatively correlates with performance in oral tests

(Phillips, 1992), reading comprehension (Saito, Horwitz & Garza, 1999), the production of

vocabulary (Gardner, Moorcroft & MacIntyre, 1987), listening comprehension and

short-term memory (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991a), and writing proficiency (Cheng,

Horwitz & Schallert, 1999). According to Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986), learning

language can cause a threat to self-esteem because students have to communicate and

express their ideas by an unfamiliar way which is quite different with the way they usually

41
 Université Sétif2

use. Therefore, to the low proficiency learners, their self-esteem may be more vulnerable

because they have more problems and frustrations in using foreign language. The recent

review by Sparks and Ganschow (2007) showed that FL anxiety is closely linked to

learners’ native language skills. According to their Linguistic Coding Deficit/ Differences

Hypothesis (LCDH). “Students with the highest levels of anxiety about foreign language

learning may also have the lowest levels of native language skills, especially in reading and

spelling” (p. 277).

6.1.4 Motivation

Motivation “is the dynamically changing cumulative arousal in a person that

initiates, directs, coordinates, amplifies, terminates, and evaluates the cognitive and motor

processes whereby initial wishes and desires are selected, prioritized, operationalized, and

(successfully or unsuccessfully) acted out” (Dörnyei & Ottó, 1998, p. 65). Gardner was one

of the pioneering researchers in second language acquisition (SLA) to focus on motivation.

He chose to define motivation by specifying four aspects: 1) a goal. 2) Effortful behavior

to reach the goal. 3) A desire to attain the goal. 4) Positive attitudes toward the goal

(Gardner, 1985, p. 50). A goal, however, was not necessarily a measurable component of

motivation. Instead, a goal was a stimulus that gave rise to motivation. Gardner focused on

classifying reasons for second language study, which he then identified as orientations

(1985, p. 54). He found two main orientations through his research: 1) integrative: a

favorable attitude toward the target language community; possibly a wish to integrate and

adapt to a new target culture through use of the language. 2) Instrumental: a more

functional reason for learning the target language, such as job promotion, or a language

requirement. Gardner’s socio-educational model of motivation focused on the integrative

motive. Motivation was the central concept of the model, but there were also some factors

which affected this, such as integrativeness and attitudes. These were other factors that

42
 Université Sétif2

influenced individual differences, and were seen as complex variables. Among these

variables, language anxiety, Gardner and MacIntyre (1993) suggest that motivation to learn

a language is likely to lessen due to high levels of anxiety since experience is found to be

painful, while high levels of motivation result in low levels of anxiety since the student

perceives the experience of motivation positively and tends to be successful – both of

which decrease anxiety- Motivated students are believed to be more interested in courses,

enjoyed learning, less anxious, and pay attention to every detail to gather an important

potential of input.

6.1.5 Learning Strategies

Learning strategies are “actions chosen by students that are intended to facilitate

learning” (Bailey et al., 1999, p.65). Learners with good learning strategies may be more

motivated and less anxious in learning foreign language (Warr & Downing, 2000). Mueller

(1981) examined the interaction between learning strategies and anxiety, and summarized

in his findings that high-anxious learners may lack of strategies in language learning; they

encode information less well, attend to less environmental cues, process material less

effectively, experience more cognitive interference, and lose working memory more easily.

In contrast, low-anxious learners may use more learning strategies, especially cognitive

strategies (e.g., rehearsal, organization, elaboration). Mueller suggested that the specific

role of anxiety in relation to the use of learning strategies should be further examined.

6.1.6 Personality Trait

Some studies showed that FL anxiety is partly related to an individual‘s personality

(Dewaele, 2007; Dörnyei, 2005; Young, 1991). According to Gregersen and Horwitz’s

(2002) study, high-anxiety learners and perfectionists share some similar characteristics

which include higher standards for their English performance, a greater tendency towards

43
 Université Sétif2

procrastination, more worry over the opinions of others, and a higher level of concern over

their errors. These characteristics may evoke learners’ negative feelings and low sense of

success in FL learning. Chu (2008) confirmed that shyness has a positive correlation with

anxiety in FL classroom. He stated that FL anxiety, willingness to communicate, and

shyness interact with one another and create an impact on Taiwanese students in their

English study. Although a number of studies have already been undertaken examining the

relationships between personality and anxiety, it is still not clear whether there is

a relationship between them (Dewaele & Furnham, 1999).

6.1.7 Social Anxiety

Social anxiety is the apprehension aroused by social situations and the interaction

with other people that can automatically bring on feelings of self-esteem, judgment

evaluation, and scrutiny (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Social anxiety consists

of speech anxiety, shyness, stage fright, embarrassment, social-evaluative anxiety, and

communication apprehension (Leary, 1983). People who suffer from communication

apprehension are more reluctant to talk and participate in conversations, and more likely to

avoid or withdraw from social situations (Aida, 1994).

Although it is axiomatic that language learning cannot be without errors, errors can

be a source of social anxiety in some individuals because they draw attention to the

difficulty of making positive social impressions when speaking a new language

MacIntyre & Gardner (1989, cited in Horwitz & Gregersen, 2002). Errors in social settings

are mostly overlooked if they do not interfere with meaning because people consider it

impolite to interrupt and correct somebody who is trying to have a conversation with them.

Interlocutors only react to an error if they are unable to understand the speech and try to

adjust their speech with the speaker in their effort to negotiate for meaning

(Lightbown and Spada, 2006). It is only in the classroom environment that feedback on

44
 Université Sétif2

errors is provided frequently; this leads many learners to frustration and embarrassment by

making them conscious about their deficiencies and difficulties.

6.1.8 Gender

Possible differences between female and male learners as regards anxiety levels and

achievement have been examined in some language anxiety studies. Some research

investigations of (Elkhafaifi, 2005) have suggested female students often have higher levels

of anxiety than males in academic settings. In the field of language learning, Von Worde

(2003) reported that female students were more likely to be much apprehensive than male

learners. Cheng (2002), who investigated English writing anxiety in Taiwanese learners,

discovered that females were significantly more anxious than males.

In another research, according to Aida (1994), however, no statistically associations

between language anxiety in learning Japanese and gender were observed. Similarly

Onwuegbuzie et al. (1999), who also looked into possible relationships between anxiety

and gender in their participants, found no statistically significant correlations. Elkhafaifi

found that females and males exhibited different levels of anxiety depending on the kind of

anxiety experienced: female students presented significantly higher levels of general Arabic

language anxiety levels than males, but not statistically significant differences were seen

between the sexes in Arabic listening anxiety. However, in a study conducted in Chinese

high schools, males were found to be more anxious in English classes than females

(Zhao, 2007).

6.2 Correlates Associated with Situational Variables (Instruction)

Instructional factors related to FL anxiety include instructors’ beliefs about language

teaching, classroom procedure, competitive environment, and the test-taking situation.

45
 Université Sétif2

6.2.1 Instructors’ Beliefs about Language Teaching

As far as instructors’ beliefs about language teaching are concerned, some

instructor’s beliefs about language teaching have also been found to be a source of anxiety,

Young (1991) states that anxiety may be evoked if instructors believe that an authoritarian

manner is conductive to students’ performance, if they consider that all students’ mistakes

should be corrected, and if they think their role is more like a drill sergeant’s than

a facilitator. The researchers also reported that students realize that some error corrections

are necessary but they consistently report anxiety over responding incorrectly and looking

or sounding ‘stupid’ (Koch and Terrel, Horwitz, 1986, 1988, and Young, 1990, cited in

Young, 1991, p. 429) realizing this phenomenon, stated that the problem for the students is

“not necessary error correction but the manner of error correction: when, how often, and

most importantly, how errors are corrected”. In addition to error correction, some

instructors have been reported not to promote pair or group work in fear that the class may

get out of control, and think that a teacher should be doing most of the talking and teaching;

these beliefs have been found to contribute to learner’s language anxiety as mentioned

above. Recognition or awareness of these beliefs by both the learners and the teacher is

essential for effective alleviation of language anxiety in learners.

6.2.2 Classroom Procedure

Different activities in the classroom procedure, particularly, those that demand

students to speak in the foreign language in front of the whole class have been found to be

the most anxiety provoking. For instance, Koch and Terrel (1991) found that more than half

of their subjects in their Natural Approach classes expressed that giving a presentation in

the class, oral skits and discussion in large groups are the most anxiety-producing activities.

They also found that students get more anxious when called upon to respond individually,

rather than if they are given choice to respond voluntary. In addition, students were found

46
 Université Sétif2

to be more relaxed speaking the target language when paired with a classmate or put into

small groups of three to six than into large groups of seven to fifteen students. Young

(1991) found that more than sixty-eight percent of her subjects reported feeling more

comfortable when they did not have to get in front of the class to speak. Price (1991)

provided further support; she interviewed 10 highly anxious American university students

who learned French. She also attempted to examine the questions of foreign language

anxiety from the perspective of the anxious learners; the results indicated that all of the

learners felt speaking the language in class is the greatest cause of anxiety. They feared of

a) being laughed at, b) making a fool of themselves, and c) being ridiculed. Moreover,

Haskin et al (2003) did investigations on decreasing anxiety and frustration in a Spanish

language classroom. Students’ interventions included a study skill guide, partner and group

presentations, skits and activities, and group oral reading. Teacher interventions included

the use of total physical response, authentic correction, and creation of a non-threatening

classroom environment. The results in their study indicated that activities such as oral

communication, writing, and reading in class caused students’ foreign language anxiety. In

addition, students were able to identify their own feeling of anxiety and frustration and

gained self-confidence as they took risks in revealing themselves by speaking Spanish in

the presence of their peers and the teacher.

6.2.3 Competitive Environment

Using diary studies of language learners, Baily (1983, cited in Oxford, 1999a)

asserted that competitiveness can lead to language anxiety. This happens when language

learners compare themselves to others or to an idealized self-image, which they can rarely

attain. If they think that they are less capable and more anxious than others, they are bound

to remain anxious, which may have a negative effect on their performance. According to

Bailey, anxiety is particularly important because of the related trait of competitiveness

47
 Université Sétif2

which is often the driving force for worry. As Brown (1994), puts it, facilitative anxiety,

which is one of the keys to success is closely related to competitiveness. The degree of

anxiety aroused by competitiveness is also related to the learning style preferences of the

learner, the precise nature of the competition, and the demands and rewards of the

environment (Oxford, 1992).

6.2.4 Test-taking Situation

Most researchers believe that the specific situations which cause the most anxiety

for students are test-taking situations (Aida, 1994; David, 2008). Students in foreign

language class may experience test anxiety because tests and quizzes are frequent and

difficult, and even the brightest and most prepared students may make errors

(Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986). Students with test anxiety frequently experience

cognitive interference and attention deficit in the task at hand (Aida, 1994). Oral tests may

provoke both test anxiety and oral communication anxiety simultaneously in susceptible

students. From Haskin, Smith and Racine‘s (2003) study, in a FL Spanish class, 53 % of

the seventh grade students reported that they experienced anxiety when they were taking

a test or quiz, and 80 % of the students regarded tests and quizzes as anxiety producers.

They reported that tests or quizzes caused them anxiety and frustration.

Additionally, it has been assumed that the factors that influence students’ reactions

to language tests are perceptions of test validity, time limit, test technique, test format,

length, testing environment and clarity of test instructions (Young, 1999). The researches

show that test validity is one of significant factors that produce test anxiety. For instance,

Young (1991) found that students experience anxiety if the test involves content that was

not taught in class. Similarly, Horwitz and Young (1991) noted that tests in the lack of face

validity led to higher anxiety and negative attitude towards instruction. Another factor that

increases test anxiety and decreases performance is time limit. For instance, in a study

48
 Université Sétif2

conducted by Ohata (2005), learners sometimes felt pressured to think that they had to

organize their ideas in a short period of time. Inappropriate test technique is also one of the

factors that provoke test anxiety as Young (1991) reported that students felt anxious when

they had studied hours for a test and then they found that question types with which they

had no experience; they generally experienced anxiety with a particular test format. In

addition to the anxiety producing ones mentioned above, learners’ capacity, task difficulty,

the fear of getting bad grades and lack of preparation for a test are the other factors that

make learners worried. Furthermore, learners with high levels of anxiety have less control

of attention (Sarason, 1980). According to Chastain (1975), low test anxiety was highly

related to greater success.

Last of all, in Ohata (2005), most of the participants said that they feared taking

tests, because test-taking situations would make them fearful about the negative

consequences of getting a bad grade and that tests with oral performance produce the

highest levels of foreign language anxiety.

Conclusion

Second/foreign language learning can sometimes be a traumatic experience for

many learners. The number of students who report that they are anxious language learners

is astonishing. According to Von Worde (1998, cited in Von Worde, 2003), one third to one

half of students examined reported experiencing debilitating levels of language anxiety.

Although the concept of anxiety is encountered frequently throughout language learning

literature, it has not been accurately described either as being a central construct or

an add-on negligible element.

49
 Université Sétif2

The chapter had reviewed the past research on the construct of language anxiety,

which has been asserted as inconclusive and unresolved by the researchers as

aforementioned. MacIntyre (1999) suggests, until rather recently, the literature on anxiety

was scattered and difficult to interpret, often presenting questions than answers. Because

the results were not consistent, perhaps due to the complex nature of language learning

process or the inconsistency of measuring instruments. Within all this uncertainty; firstly,

complex definitions of anxiety, problems with the concept, difference between anxiety

experienced in L1 and L2/FL have been discussed. Secondly, the main approaches to the

study of this construct, its nature, types, and forms have namely been introduced, then

theoretical contentions of language anxiety with relation to three performance related

anxieties: communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation have

properly been presented. These three components have been further expanded with the help

of relevant literature in order to highlight some anxiety exasperating factors related to them.

The chapter has also pointed out correlates of language anxiety from two

perspectives: correlates associated with learners’ variables and correlates associated with

situational variables. Correlates associated with learners’ variables are those variables

dealing with the emotional state of the learner such as self-esteem, motivation, beliefs,

learning strategies and so on, because it is always intriguing, yet difficult, to determine how

these affective variables are interrelated and how they impact on one another. The second

perspective is devoted to instructors’ beliefs, classroom activities, teaching methods and

plans, the instructional setting and test-taking situation, all these variables are investigated

to gain a whole sight on the factors that may contribute to the increasing or reducing of

foreign language anxiety levels. To sum up, an accurate understanding of language anxiety

threshold will help learners and teachers to avoid harmful feelings of anxiety and adapt

strategies whenever necessary to maximize learning.

50
 Université Sétif2

CHAPTER TWO

FL Anxiety Effects on Learning

Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 52
1. Language Anxiety and Language Learning Process ....................................................... 53
1.1 Input...............................................................................................................................54
1.2 Processing ...................................................................................................................... 55
1.3 Output ............................................................................................................................ 57
2. The Effect of FL Anxiety on the Four Skills, Vocabulary and Grammar ....................... 58
2.1 FL Anxiety in the Listening Skill .................................................................................. 59
2.2 FL Anxiety in the Speaking Skill .................................................................................. 60
2.3 FL Anxiety in the Reading Skill .................................................................................... 62
2.4 FL Anxiety in the Writing Skill..................................................................................... 64
2.5 FL Anxiety and Vocabulary Learning ........................................................................... 64
2.6 FL Anxiety and Grammar Learning .............................................................................. 67
3. Manifestation of Foreign Language Anxiety .................................................................. 68
4. Ways of Creating a Low- anxiety Classroom.................................................................. 69
4.1 Students’ strategies for Coping with Anxiety................................................................ 69
4.2 Creating a Friendly and Supportive Learning Environment ......................................... 72
4.3 Computer-mediated Communication Approach............................................................ 74
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 75

51
 Université Sétif2

Introduction

It is a fact that communication in L2/FL requires second/foreign language learning

(MacIntyre et al., 2003). However, the complexities or difficulties involved in the process

of learning a second/foreign language may also cause language anxiety for ESL/EFL

learners. From a linguistic perspective, ‘students’ anxiety about L2/FL learning is likely to

be a consequence of their language learning difficulties (Sparks, Ganschow, & Javorsky,

2000). Appropriate use of ‘linguistic knowledge’ is required to create an oral message (in

case of speaking skills) that will be meaningful for the intended audience (Chastain, 1988).

In the learner’s attempt to create and convey this oral message, an insufficient command of

linguistic knowledge enhances the possibilities of making mistakes, which leads to negative

evaluation and hence anxiety. In other words, “in the consciousness of the learner, the

negative evaluation of the learner may come from the linguistics mistakes he/she makes”

(Jones & Frydenberg, 2004).

The present chapter deals with psycholinguistic factors that contribute to anxiety by

creating difficulties in the process of learning a foreign language in its three stages: Input,

process and output. Krashen (1982) noted that learners with a low affective filter seek and

obtain more input, interact with confidence, and are more receptive to the input they

receive. Anxious learners, on the other hand, have a high affective filter that prevents

acquisition. Consequently, the learner’s emotional state is assumed to directly affect the

four main study skills which are: listening, speaking, reading and writing in addition to

vocabulary acquisition and grammar. Furthermore, the potential of anxiety to interfere with

learning and performance is one of the most accepted phenomena in psychology and

education (Abu-Rabia, 2004; MacIntyre, 1995a). Obviously, language anxiety is not hard to

detect, it is manifested and associated with a large number of negative outcomes that can be

classified as physical, psychological, or social (e.g., Bailey, Daley, Onwuegbuzie, 1999;

52
 Université Sétif2

Oxford 1999a). Physical symptoms can include, for example, rapid heartbeat, muscle

tension, dry mouth, and excessive perspiration. Psychological symptoms can include

embarrassment, feelings of helplessness, fear, going blank, and poor memory recall and

retention among others. Negative social behavior may be manifested in such ways as

inappropriate silence, unwillingness to participate, absenteeism, and withdrawal from the

course. These effects can lead to poor performance and low achievement. Finally, research

on language anxiety suggests a variety of techniques to reduce or successfully cope with

language anxiety. To reach such a goal, students are invited to learn and adopt some

strategies and behaviors and teachers have to create a friendly and supportive learning

environment and introduce any technological devise or approach that can facilitate their

teaching task.

1. Language Anxiety and Language Learning Process

Due to the inadequacy in experimental research at early stage, the studies on FL

anxiety revealed ambiguous results. “For a time it was believed that anxiety might have

both a facilitating and debilitating effect on L2 acquisition; subsequent research has

indicated, however, that any effects that are obtained tend to be debilitative”

(Gardner, 2008, p. 37). Empirical studies have found that anxiety has potential negative

effects on second language acquisition. Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) found that the

language grades that the students expected in their first class and that they received in their

actual final exams negatively correlated with FL anxiety. The findings of MacIntyre and

Gardner (1989) also showed that there was significant negative correlation between

language anxiety and performance on a vocabulary learning task. Saito and Samimy’s

(1996) study confirmed that anxiety might negatively relate to the achievement of language

learners at three levels (beginning, intermediate, and advanced). In one study by

53
 Université Sétif2

(MacIntyre, Noels, and Clement ,1997), the relationship between anxiety and student’s

self-rating of their language proficiency was found to be negative. Anxiety tend to be

associated with “deficits in listening comprehension, impaired vocabulary learning, reduced

word production, low scores on standardized tests, low grades in language courses or

a combination of these factors” (Gardner, Tremblay & Masgoret, 1997, p. 345). MacIntyre

and Gardner (1991a, 1991b, 1994) used a series of laboratory studies to verify Tobias’

(1986) model of the effects of anxiety on learning. According to Tobias’ model, anxiety

could interfere with learning at three stages: input, processing and output.

1.1 Input

Input is the first stage of language learning. It activates ‘Language Acquisition

Device’ (LAD) - an innate language-specific module in the brain (Chomsky, cited in

Lightbown & Spada, 2006), which carries out the further process of language learning.

Anxiety at the input stage (input anxiety) refers to the anxiety experienced by the learners

when they encounter a new word, phrase or sentence in the foreign language.

Krashen (1985, p.3), considering input as a basic stage of language learning,

asserted in his ‘Input hypothesis’ that “speech cannot be taught directly but emerges on its

own as a result of building competence via comprehensible input”. What generally causes

this incomprehensibility is learners’ affective filter, i.e. anxiety and lack of confidence;

these variables prevent the comprehensible input to be fully exploited.

The level of anxiety at this stage is a function of the learners’ ability to receive, to

concentrate on, and to encode external stimuli. Anxiety produced at this stage may reduce

the efficacy of input. This may occur when the anxious learner’s ability to attend to

material presented by the instructor diminishes, and nominal stimuli become ineffective

54
 Université Sétif2

due to an inability to represent input internally (Tobias, 1977, cited in Krashen 1985).

Students with high levels of input anxiety typically attend more to task-irrelevant

information and material, reducing the capacity to receive input (Onwuegbuzie & Daley,

1996). According to MacIntyre and Gardner (1994), students with high levels of anxiety at

the input stage may ask for their foreign language instructors to repeat sentences more often

than do their low-anxious peers, or they may have reread material in the foreign language

on several occasions to compensate for missing or inadequate input. Input anxiety is more

likely to cause miscomprehension of the message sent by the interlocutors, which may lead

to the loss of successful communication and an increased level of anxiety.

1.2 Processing

Anxiety at the processing stage, called processing anxiety, refers to the

“apprehension students experience when performing cognitive operations on new

information” (Onwuegbuzie et al., 2000, p. 476). Cognitivists believe that learners have to

process information and to ‘pay attention’ to produce any linguistic aspect by using

cognitive sources. However, they suggest that there is a limit to how much information

a learner can pay attention to or in other words, there is a limit to the amount of focused

mental activity a learner can engage in at one time. Speaking, particularly in the target

language, requires more than one mental activity at one time like: choosing words,

pronouncing them, and stringing them together with the appropriate grammatical markers,

etc… (Segalowitz, 2003, cited in Lightbown and Spada, 2006). In order to perform these

operations while communicating “complex and non spontaneous mental operations are

required” and failure to do so may “lead to reticence, self-consciousness, fear, and even

panic (Horwitz et al., 1986, p.28). Similarly, concerning the listening skill, Chen (2002)

55
 Université Sétif2

reported that students face difficulties in recognizing and matching the pronunciation of the

spoken words due to the slow mental processing abilities of some students.

Where limited processing mental capacity may cause anxiety, conversely, anxiety

may restrict this operational capacity of the mind, and both together may cause impaired

performance or altered behaviour. Researchers have found a recursive relationship among

anxiety, cognition and behaviour (Leary, 1990; Levitt, 1980, cited in MacIntyre, 1995a).

MacIntyre explains this inter-relationship as follows: For example, a demand to answer

a question in a second language class may cause a student to become anxious; anxiety

leads to worry and rumination. Cognition performance is diminished because of the divided

attention and therefore performance suffers, leading to negative self-evaluation and more

self deprecating cognition which further impairs performance, and so on. (p. 92).

The Cognitive Processing Model can also explain the difficulty learners feel in

remembering and retrieving vocabulary items while communicating in the target language;

this could be seen as another important source of language anxiety for the ESL/EFL

learners. MacIntyre and Gardner (1991b) found a significant negative correlation between

language anxiety and ability to repeat a short string of numbers and recall vocabulary items.

This shows that anxiety can limit the use of both short and long term memory. Similarly,

Tobias (1977) found that anxiety at this stage can debilitate learning by interfering with the

processes that transform the input information and generate a solution to the problem. That

is, anxiety may reduce the efficiency with which memory processes are utilized to solve the

task. In particular, high levels of processing anxiety may reduce a student’s ability to

understand messages or to learn new vocabulary items in the foreign language

(MacIntyre and Gardner, 1994).

56
 Université Sétif2

1.3 Output

Anxiety while communicating in the target language is more likely to appear at the

output stage, which entirely depends upon the successful completion of the previous stages:

input and processing. Anxiety at the output stage refers to learners’ nervousness or fear

experienced when required to demonstrate their ability to use previously learned material

(Onwuegbuzie et al., 2000). According to Tobias (1977) output anxiety involves

interference, which is manifested after the completion of the processing stage but before its

effective reproduction as output. According to MacIntyre and Gardner (1994), high levels

of anxiety at this stage might hinder students’ ability to speak or to write in the foreign

language.

All the three stages of anxiety have been found to be somewhat interdependent;

each stage depends on the successful completion of the previous one, which may define

language-learning process as follows: Language learning is a cognitive activity that relies

on encoding, storage, and retrieval processes, and anxiety can interfere with each of these

creating a divided attention scenario for anxious students. Anxious students are focused on

both the task at hand and their reactions to it. For example, when responding to a question

in a class, the anxious student is focused on answering the teacher’s question and

evaluating the social implications of the answer while giving it (MacIntyre, 1995a, p. 96).

Generally speaking, “acquisition of deviant linguistic forms”, as Krashen believes

and “slow and non-spontaneous mental processes” (Horwitz, 2001) can explain the

difficulties involved in the process of L2/FL learning. This further shows the sources or

causes of anxiety experienced by these learners at the output stage particularly while

speaking in the target language. The description of this process can suggest many

implications for language teachers who ask for quick answers or expect learners to speak

57
 Université Sétif2

fluently. Teachers’ or learners’ own beliefs to speak fluently if associated with the slow

process in the mind result in apprehension and reticence in the learner.

(Preprocessing)
Input Processing Output

Figure 1. Tobias’ model of the effects of anxiety on learning from instruction. Adapted

from ʊLanguage Anxiety: A Review of the Research for Language Teachers‫ ۅ‬by

MacIntyre, P. D. In Young D. J. (Ed.), Affect in foreign language and second language

learning: A practical guide to creating a low-anxiety classroom atmosphere (p. 35). New

York: McGraw-Hill. Copyright 1999 by McGraw-Hill.

2. The Effect of FL Anxiety on the Four Skills, Vocabulary and Grammar

Among the objectives of any language curriculum is how to learn the four language

skills and how to help learners acquiring a considerable amount of vocabulary and accurate

grammar. Research has proved as seen previously that language anxiety is likely to affect

learners during the process of learning, thereby, interfere within and during the acquisition

of the four skills. MacIntyre and Gardner (1994) defined L2 anxiety as, “…the feeling of

tension and apprehension specifically associated with second language contexts, including

speaking, listening, and learning.” (p.284). Spolsky (1989) determined that anxious learners

write, speak, and participate less than relaxed learners in language classes.

58
 Université Sétif2

2.1 FL Anxiety in the Listening Skill

Quite a lot of attention has been paid to the anxiety suffered by many learners when

listening to the second/foreign language. Krashen (1982) assumed that listening or the

extracting message from messages in L2 was the primary process in the development of

a second language, and postulated that anxiety formed an ‘affective filter’ (Krashen, 1980,

cited in young, 1991) that interfered with an individual’s capacity to receive and process

oral messages successfully. Indeed, MacIntyre and Gadner (1994) in their definition of

language anxiety, they involve listening and not only speaking “ Language anxiety can be

defined as the feeling of tension and apprehension specifically associated with second

language contexts, including speaking, listening, and learning” (p.284).

In their study, Horwitz et al. (1986) reported that many students were anxious when

listening to the L2, and had “difficulties in discriminating the sounds and structures of

a target language message”. One student said that he heard “only a loud buzz” when his

instructor was speaking, and anxious students also told of problems with comprehending

the content of L2 messages and with understanding their teachers in the “extended target

language utterances” (p. 126). In the same study, fewer students claimed to be anxious

about listening than about speaking, but even so, the proportion was considerable. Over one

third of the participants expressed their fear of not being able to “understand what the

teacher is saying in the foreign language”, and over a quarter said they were nervous when

they did not “understand every word” uttered by the teacher (Horwitz et al., 1986,

pp. 129-130).

In students’ comments given freely in on a questionnaire, Vogely (1998) attempted

to investigate the potential sources of arousal of listening comprehension anxiety in

students within classroom activities. As far as features of input were concerned, the speed

of delivery was the most frequently reported cause of listening comprehension anxiety,

59
 Université Sétif2

followed by bad diction, variety of accents, and teachers who spoke too quietly. As to level

of difficulty, exercises that were too complex, unknown vocabulary, difficult syntax and

unfamiliar topics make students feel anxious. They may also experience apprehension if

they did not know what was required of them in the listening activity or why. Some

students claimed that they needed the help of some visual aid to manage with the listening

task. Students reported feeling anxious if they could only listen to texts once or twice

before having to respond.

In another study, Kim (2000) found that learners were “sensitive to both the type of

listening passages and kinds of tasks (p. 151). Anxiety was aroused by listening to

authentic texts such as a news bulletin, and by such related features as background noise,

hesitation, turn-taking, false starts, or irregular pauses which occur in natural speech, the

author pretended that this was because participants were not exposed to authentic listening

passages until they reached higher levels. Dictation and identifying details of listening tasks

also caused tension. Most participants reported that “ sheer delivery speed” ( p.152) made

them feel nervous, and believed that they should look for opportunities to listen themselves

and that teachers should orientate them to the appropriate way- if there is any- to learn the

listening skills.

2.2 FL Anxiety in the Speaking Skill

The literature suggests that the speaking skill is extremely anxiety-provoking in

many language students and it is generally seen to arouse more anxiety than the other skills.

Indeed, Daly (1991, cited in Von Worde, 2003) reported that in some individuals “fear of

giving a speech in public exceeded such phobias as fear of snakes, elevators, and heights”

(p. 3). Anxiety reactions suffered by many students when speaking or when being asked to

60
 Université Sétif2

speak by the teacher in the foreign language classroom include “distortion of sounds,

inability to reproduce the intonation and rhythm of the language, ‘freezing up’ when called

on to perform, and forgetting words or phrases just learned or simply refusing to speak and

remaining silent” (Young, 1991, p. 430). The same author cited a student’s perception of

his oral performance in the foreign language in the classroom: “I dread going to Spanish

class. My teacher is kind, but I hate it when the teacher calls on me to speak. I freeze up

and can’t think of what to say or how to say it, and my pronunciation is terrible. Sometimes

I think people don’t even understand what I’m saying” (young, 1990, p. 539).

Horwitz et al. (1986) pointed out that students said that they had most problems in

the listening and speaking skills, with “difficulty in speaking in class being probably the

most frequently cited concern of anxious foreign language students”( p. 126). Learners said

they did not feel too apprehensive during drills or about speaking if they had time to plan

their spoken interventions, but would ‘freeze’ if they had to speak spontaneously.

Classroom activities and the learning/teaching environment seem to have a direct

impact on students’ anxiety and on their performance in speaking. The majority of Young’s

(1990) learners of Spanish indicated that they felt less uncomfortable in speaking activities

when they came to class prepared, and when they were not the only person answering

a question. Most would prefer to offer responses orally themselves instead of being called

on to give an answer. The majority of students said that they would be less nervous about

oral exams if they had more practice speaking in class, and most expressed a wish to have

their errors corrected. Koch and Terrell (1991) found that Natural Approach activities

(which paradoxically are designed to minimize stress), such as role-plays and charades,

aroused a great deal of anxiety in their students.

In addition, anxiety has been reported to influence not only grammatical precision

but also interpretive ability. In Steinberg and Horwitz (1986) investigation, reported in

61
 Université Sétif2

MacIntyre and Gardner (1991a) learners were asked to describe pictures. Half of the

participants were welcomed sympathetically by the interviewer in a comfortable

environment in an attempt to put them at ease, while the other half were received coldly in

an uncomfortable setting with a video camera filming them in an attempt to arouse

nervousness and apprehension. The researchers measured the amounts of ‘denotive content’

and ‘interpretive content’ in participants’ descriptions and found that those in the anxiety-

provoking atmosphere employed significantly less interpretive language than did the

participants in a relaxed setting. MacIntyre and Gardner considered that these findings

“suggest reluctance on the part of anxious students to express personally relevant

information in a foreign language conversation” (p.107).

Horwitz et al. (1986) noted that students who are apprehensive about making

mistakes in front of others “seem to feel constantly tested and they perceive every

correction as a failure” (p.130). The same researchers explained how anxious language

students frequently forget what they know in a test or in a speaking activity. Indeed,

speaking tests seem to be particularly anxiety-provoking, they probably arouse the three

constituents of language anxiety: communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation,

and test anxiety, all at the same time. As MacIntyre and Gardner (1991a) pointed out:

“foreign language tests, given orally, likely evoke test anxiety as well as communication

apprehension” (p.105).

2.3 FL Anxiety in the Reading Skill

Some researchers have looked into the question of whether anxiety in the reading

skill is a separate kind of anxiety from more general language anxiety, and have been

interested in exploring anxiety in reading in a variety of languages.

62
 Université Sétif2

In a study, Saito et al. (1999) investigated anxiety in the reading skill, participants

were students enrolled in courses of three different foreign languages: French, Russian and

Japanese, their mother tongue is presumably English. Researchers found that students who

had higher levels of foreign language anxiety were also more reading-anxious. They

noticed that general foreign language anxiety was not associated with the language being

studied, whereas reading anxiety was related to the target language. Learners of Japanese

(a non cognate language) were the most anxious readers, followed by learners of French

(a cognate language), then learners of Russian (a semi cognate language). The authors

speculated as to why Russian did not provoke such high levels of anxiety as French: one

reason may be that the system of Cyrillic symbol is “phonetically dependable” (p. 213).

The authors reported that many anxious-students felt overwhelmed when confronted with a

FL text when they could not comprehend every word of a reading text and were very

concerned about reading about cultural aspects which were unknown to them. Such

students tended to translate every word when approaching a text and many felt anxious

when they came across unknown grammatical structures. Reading anxiety seemed to be

connected to the target language and associated with the different writing systems: French

(cognate), Russian (semi cognate), and Japanese (non cognate). According to the

aforementioned researchers, it is difficult to say whether foreign language reading anxiety

is the cause or effect of students’ reading problems, but stated that in this investigation,

anxiety seemed to stem from reading and not vice versa. Anxiety seemed to be

“a mediating variable that intervenes at some point between the decoding of a text and the

actual processing of textual meaning” (Saito et al., 1999, p. 215). The authors suggested

that making students aware in advance about anxiety may help relieve it.

Another study (sellers, 2000) pointed out that students suffering from greater

anxiety would retrieve fewer essential details from a reading text, and that during the

63
 Université Sétif2

reading task, they suffered more cognitive interference than less anxious readers, and were

more preoccupied by irrelevant thoughts and less able to centre their attention on the task,

which led to inferior understanding of the text.

2.4 FL Anxiety in the Writing Skill

Some researchers have undertaken the task of looking for links between language

anxiety and the writing skill. According to Cheng (2002), anxiety in L2 writing appeared to

be quite strongly correlated to L2 speaking anxiety, but not statistically significant

correlation was found between foreign language writing anxiety and native language

writing anxiety. There appeared to be a much stronger relationship between anxieties

experienced in different modes of communication in one language than across different

languages. Language anxiety in writing in the first language did not seem to be linked to

anxiety in writing in the second language; Cheng posited that the “non significant”, low

correlation between L1 and L2 writing anxiety suggested that these two anxiety constructs

are different from each other.

2.5 FL Anxiety and Vocabulary Learning

MacIntyre and Gardner (1994b) conducted an investigation on vocabulary learning.

They attempted to examine the effects of anxiety on the three stages of learning

(input stage, processing stage, and output stage) as proposed by Tobias (1986) and tested

the hypothesis that language anxiety would hinder the learning and production of

vocabulary. Participants were university students of first-year French, whose mother-

tongue was English. They were divided into four groups at random. All groups carried out

the same tasks. One group was not video-recorded at any stage of the experiment. The other

64
 Université Sétif2

three groups were filmed either as from the beginning of the input stage, or as from the

beginning of the processing stage, or as from the beginning of the output stage, with the

intention of evoking anxiety. These three groups were called “input group”, “processing

group”, and “output group,” respectively. For each group, once filming began, the recorder

was not switched off until all tasks were over.

Materials were a Learning Program, which was a computer task consisting of three

stages in which students learned “paired associates” of words. At the Input stage students

were shown 19 French nouns for 1.5 seconds each in random order; students were then

shown 38 nouns, including the 19 shown previously, and were required to recognise the

ones seen at the beginning. The number of correct answers gave the Input score, and

recognition time was measured.

At the processing stage, the same 19 French words were seen on screen, this time

with English translations, that is, “paired associates”, in random order for 2.5 seconds each;

again participants were required to identify the original 19 pairs from 38 pairs subsequently

shown. The number of correct answers gave the Processing score, and the time taken to

recognise each pair was measured.

At the Output stage students were subjected to four trials, in each of which they

typed in the French equivalents prompted by the 19 nouns in English, shown for 10 seconds

each on the screen. No time limit was set for writing answers. The number of correct

answers given in the four trials made up the Output score. Intervening Performance Tasks

were given between the three learning stages, “in order to introduce a delay between the

vocabulary learning program and later use of the new vocabulary” (p.6). They were Digit

Span, i.e., remembering lists of numbers in their correct order in L1 and L2, considered by

the authors as suitable for the input stage as the numbers were not given meaning in the

experiment; Thing Category test, in which students were required to give vocabulary items

65
 Université Sétif2

pertaining to a certain category, considered suitable for the output stage; Self-Description in

which students described themselves for one minute in English and in French, and were

judged in terms of accent, fluency, sentence complexity and depth; Vocabulary Recall test,

in which previously learned vocabulary items were elicited by questions in French which

appeared on the computer screen. Students were given 20 seconds in which to respond

orally; responses were audio-recorded.

Results revealed that in all four groups (the first, input, processing, and output),

responding in French aroused more anxiety than carrying out other learning tasks. Anxiety

levels also rose immediately after the video was switched on in the input, processing, and

output groups. In the first group (who were not videoed at all), no statistically significant

variations in mean anxiety levels were observed in the learning tasks, although they did rise

in the Vocabulary Recall task. The first group did better than the other groups on this task.

At the Input stage, the group who was exposed to anxiety inducement ( the input

group) through video-recording was expected to exhibit and did exhibit lower learning

scores than the groups who were not being videoed ( the first, the processing, and the

output groups). At the processing stage, the two groups who were subjected to video-

recording ( input and processing groups) obtained lower learning scores than the two

groups who were not ( the first and output groups), as expected. Similarly, at the output

stage, when all three experimental groups were exposed to anxiety arousal, learning scores

were poorer in all but the first group. At all stages, the recognition of pairs of words was

seen to be the most hindered in the group in which the video had most recently been

switched on and therefore in which anxiety had been most recently evoked. The four

groups were observed to take a similar time to do the learning tasks.

Tasks in English (L1) were seen to evoke less anxiety than those in French (L2),

and anxiety increased starting from Thing Category, to Digit Span and to Self-Description.

66
 Université Sétif2

Subjects appeared “eventually to be able to cope with the state anxiety aroused by the

camera” (p.15). The first group, not exposed to anxiety arousal, exhibited best learning

performance on all tasks. Tasks involving communication tasks provoked more

nervousness than those involving learning. Anxiety arousal was also detrimental to

Vocabulary Recall in those groups who were exposed to video recording. This study was

particularly noteworthy because it showed clearly how anxiety levels increased coinciding

with anxiety inducement in the three experimental groups, and how more anxiety was

observed during output tasks especially communication tasks.

2.6 FL Anxiety and Grammar Learning

Van Patten and Glass (1999) have investigated the effects of anxiety on students

who take grammar courses and resulted that some students feel a certain amount of anxiety

in grammar courses due to various factors. For instance, some students have a fear of not

sounding as good as the other students in the class. Their level of anxiety increases as their

instructors criticize their answers. Some students, on the other hand, feel threatened by the

amount of materials presented in a given time. If too much grammatical information is

presented in a short time, the students may feel apprehensive. Another factor that causes

anxiety is the fear of evaluation. The teacher’s way of evaluation may be another anxiety-

provoking factor. Some teachers generally use the communicative approach in the

classroom and put the emphasis on discussion, vocabulary development or listening

comprehension. However, they adopt a totally traditional approach in the exams and most

of their questions generally focus on grammatical features. The students who experience

such an inconsistency generally feel that the lessons do not serve their purpose which is

learning the grammatical features. Additionally, some students come to the foreign

67
 Université Sétif2

language courses with an expectation of learning the grammatical features of the language

and feel frustrated when the lesson is based on a communicative approach.

3. Manifestation of Foreign Language Anxiety

SLA researchers and foreign language teachers have decoded a number of

symptoms and behaviours manifested in anxious learners. Negative consequences of

language anxiety manifest in the form of changed behaviour, such as responding less

effectively to language errors (Gregersen, 2003, cited in Gregersen , 2007); engaging in

negative self-talk and ruminating over poor performance, which affects information

processing abilities (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1994); exhibiting avoidance behaviour by

sitting at the back of the classroom in an attempt not to be called on by the teacher or

simply by missing class, having unrealistic high performance standards

(Gregersen & Horwitz, 2002); freezing up in role play activities and participating

infrequently. Students with a high level of debilitating anxiety attempt different type of

grammatical constructions; are less interpretive of more concrete messages; know a certain

grammar point but forget it during a test or an oral performance; complain of difficulties

discriminating the sounds and structures of a foreign language message; confess they know

the correct answer on a test but put down the wrong one due to nervousness; over-study

without any improvement in grades (Horwitz, et al., 1986); and ultimately receiving low

course grades (Gardner, 1985, cited in Gregersen, 2007). In addition,

Harrigan et al. (2004, cited in Grgersen, 2007) posited that anxiety can be accurately

decoded both through prosodic (stress and intonation pattern), paralinguistic (non verbal)

features of vocal communication and through visual non-verbal cues. Gregersen (2007) in

her study on nonverbal behaviour of anxious and non-anxious language learners found that

anxious learners manifested limited facial activity, including brow behaviour and smiling,

68
 Université Sétif2

maintained less eye contact with the teacher, and were more rigid and closed with their

posture.

4. Ways of Creating a Low- anxiety Classroom

Various ways have been used by classroom practitioners and suggested by

researchers to reduce anxiety are discussed briefly in this part of the literature. Creating

a low-stress language learning environment is believed to facilitate learning

a second/foreign language by allowing students to concentrate on communication rather

than being distracted by worry and fear of negative evaluation (Young, 1991). Accordingly,

these views and suggestions to cope with anxiety or almost reduce it are grouped into three

categories: students’ strategies for coping with anxiety, creating a friendly and supportive

learning environment and computer-mediated approach.

4.1 Students’ strategies for Coping with Anxiety

With the recognition that many students will have a heightened level of anxiety;

educators have two options when dealing with anxious students: 1) they can help them

learn to cope with the existing anxiety; and/ or 2) they can make the learning context less

stressful (Horwitz et al., 1986). The concern at this point is helping students learn to cope

with their anxiety, and accordingly; the teacher must first help students recognise their

anxiety and then teach students specific methods to reduce the anxiety level.

Students must first be able to recognise and acknowledge their feelings of anxiety in

the classroom and need to remind themselves that it is normal to experience anxiety. This is

an opportunity for teachers to create an open discussion with students and to educate

students about what anxiety is, and how anxiety can affect the students both academically

69
 Université Sétif2

and socially. Foss and Reitzel (1988) suggest that discussing fears about learning a new

language may indicate to students that they are not alone in their anxiety, that the teacher

understands their discomfort, and that the discussion itself “encourages learners to relax”

(cited in Phillips, 1991, p. 5).

Research has been done on how to help students cope with their anxiety in academic

settings of which the focus has been on cognitive, affective, and behavioural approaches

(Hembree, 1988); The cognitive approach assumes that thinking disturbances that occur in

the classroom setting are the main sources of anxiety and possible interventions include

helping students realize that their fears are unfounded. For example, students will not be

“making a fool of themselves” by speaking in class. The affective approach attempts to

disrupt the negative association between the classroom and anxiety. The behavioural

approach believes that anxiety occurs because of poor academic skills and therefore helping

students increase their academic skills will reduce the anxiety (Kondo & Yong, 2004).

Kondo and Yong identified 70 basic tactics that students used to reduce their

anxiety. These 70 tactics were clustered into five strategy types: preparation, relaxation,

positive thinking, peer seeking, and resignation. The first category, preparation, is an

attempt to control anxiety by improving learning and study strategies such as studying hard,

asking questions, asking for help, reading more carefully, and creating quality summaries

of notes. These strategies would likely increase the students’ confidence of the academic

material, thereby reducing the anxiety associated with class. Relaxation involves strategies

to reduce the physical symptoms of anxiety which would include taking deep breaths,

a mental focus on relaxing, and pretending to be calm. The third category, positive

thinking, is distinguished by its calming function of decreasing the problematic mental

processes that cause the students’ anxiety. Such examples include trying to be confident,

thinking positively, imagining giving a great performance, and downplaying the importance

70
 Université Sétif2

of the task at hand. Peer seeking is characterized by the students’ willingness to seek out

classmates who may have the same problems of understanding the class or appear to have

problems controlling their anxiety also. This strategy aids the student by realizing that

others are having the same problems and may help reduce the anxiety produced by

comparisons. The final category is resignation, in which students reduce their anxiety by

“giving up”. Such students may stop paying attention, sleep in class, and demonstrate other

typical avoidance behaviours. For further techniques that could be used by students to cope

with language anxiety (see Appendix G).

In addition to the previous general techniques, students must be instructed in

techniques or strategies of learning a FL, such as devices for memorization, silent rehearsal,

and paraphrasing (Nugent, 2000). According to Chamot and Kupper (1989, cited in Oxford,

1994), some learning strategies are relevant to particular language skills; for example,

listening comprehension relies on the strategies of elaboration, inferencing, selective

attention, and self-monitoring; speaking requires strategies like risk-taking, paraphrasing,

circumlocution, self-monitoring, and self-evaluation; reading comprehension bases on the

strategies such as reading aloud, guessing, deduction, and summarizing; writing benefits

from the strategies of planning, self-monitoring, deduction, and substitution. Teachers

should provide this wide range of learning strategies for students.

Lessard-Clouston (1997) pointed out that aiming at training students in using

language learning strategies; teachers should be familiar with students’ interests,

motivations, learning styles, and what strategies they use in language learning. Teachers

can receive this information through observing students’ behavior in class, or using

questionnaire at the beginning of a course; furthermore, teachers should study their own

teaching method, overall classroom style, and analyze their lesson plans; when teaching the

course, teachers should provide learners more training in learning strategy implicitly,

71
 Université Sétif2

explicitly, or both. Teachers should encourage students to use the positive and good

strategies mentioned above in order to create a greater opportunity for learning language.

4.2 Creating a Friendly and Supportive Learning Environment

Arguably the most important tool for the teacher is to create and maintain a friendly

and supportive learning environment (Gregersen & Horwitz, 2002; Horwitz, Horwitz,

& Cope, 1986; young, 1991). Because a low-stress language learning environment is

thought to facilitate language learning by allowing students to focus more on learning

rather than being distracted by fear of teacher and peer evaluation, encouraging a relaxed

atmosphere in the classroom is a crucial step in diminishing and alleviating student anxiety

(Phillips, 1992). Gregersen and Horwitz (2002) also suggest that “presenting themselves as

helpful instructors concerned primarily with promoting student learning, rather than as

authority figures concerned primarily with evaluating student performance” will help to

foster a more friendly and supportive learning environment (p.569).

The use of humor in the classroom has been suggested to help create a more relaxed

learning environment (Schacht & Stewart, 1990). According to (Mogavero, 1979, cited in

Schacht & Stewart, 1990) research showed that students thought humor helped with

maintaining attention, relieved boredom, and reduced anxiety. The aforementioned authors

suggest that appropriately used humor in the classroom can have an “inherent

tension-reducing function” (p.54). However, if humor is to be used in the classroom, it

should relate to the topic at hand and should not mock or make fun of anyone in the

classroom. However, aggressive or sexually explicit humor can increase student anxiety

levels (Powell & Anderson, 1985).

72
 Université Sétif2

While students are learning a new language, it is critical that educators be

understanding and patient with students’ errors. Students can become increasingly

apprehensive and anxious about speaking in class (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986;

young, 1991; Kim, 2005) and it has been recommended that error correction by educators

be kept to a minimum to reduce the anxiety of oral performance in class. Young (1991)

suggests that “instructors can reduce anxiety by adopting an attitude that mistakes are part

of the language learning process and that mistakes will be made by everybody” (p.432).

Teachers can correct errors within the context of the conversation to minimize the anxiety

and embarrassment that students may feel while speaking in class (Horwitz, et al., 1986;

Phillips, 1991; Young, 1991). For example, when correction is necessary, modeling can be

employed by the teacher by rephrasing the students’ comments in the appropriate form

(Phillips, 1991). This method is less direct for correcting errors and therefore more

beneficial for the students as they will learn that an error in their speaking has occurred, but

no direct mention of this has been made by the instructor. Assumingly, this will decrease

the students’ inhibitions of speaking in front of their peers and an instructor.

As far as the atmosphere of competition is concerned, to relieve students’ pressure

from competition and comparison, students of similar levels can be grouped together and

offer them appropriate materials for their level of language competence

(Yan & Horwitz, 2008). The activities and practice for overcoming anxiety and improving

presentation skills include the followings: informally questioning students concerning

curricular topics about which they are knowledgeable, reading speech transcripts and

listening to master (native) speakers, playing charades, and presenting speeches without eye

contact such as role play (Holbrook, 1987). Kitano (2001) suggested that teachers should

structure their classroom practices that students will not be forced to be competitive and

that individual differences in performance will not be too noticeable. For example, before

73
 Université Sétif2

individual work, teachers can let students completely comprehend the work and practice it

enough in groups. Yan and Horwitz (2008) emphasized that class activities should be

designed to encourage cooperation instead of competition, and adequate time for pair or

group discussion could be allowed before oral responses are required. A study of Oxford

(1994) found that cooperative learning can not only lower anxiety in the language

classroom, but also increase learners’ motivation.

4.3 Computer-mediated Communication Approach

Research has shown that Computer-mediated communication motivates learners to

engage in meaningful communication in the target language and leads to effective language

learning (Brown, 1994; Hanson-Smith, 2001; Meskill & Ranglova, 2000). It shifts learning

from a teacher-centered toward a learner-centered approach, allowing learners to take

control of learning content and learning process (Fotos & Browne, 2004). Studies indicate

that a well-designed CMC activity can encourage students to notice and modify output

content and structure, enhance motivation, reduce anxiety, foster learner autonomy, and

promote cooperative learning (Beauvois, 1998; Godwin-Jones, 2003; González-Bueno,

1998; Kern, 1995). Furthermore, by reducing social-context clues such as gender, race, and

status, and nonverbal cues such as facial expressions and body language, CMC provides

a safer and more relaxed environment for language learners, especially for the shy or less

confident ones (Hanson-Smith, 2001; Sproull & Kiesler, 1991). CMC also enables

individuals to express their thoughts at their own pace and in their own space so that, in

contrast to traditional classroom settings, CMC learners do not have to compete with their

classmates for the instructor’s attention (Sproull & Kiesler, 1991).

74
 Université Sétif2

In addition, a study of Meunier (1998) finds that 87% of learners reported to

experience low FL anxiety in online discussions, one of the computer-mediated

communication (CMC) methods. Furthermore, both the studies of Beauvois (1998) and

Warschauer (1996) reveal that students who participated less in the oral classroom could

become active contributors in the electronic setting. Teachers can implement asynchronous

CMC (e.g., email exchanges) as well as synchronous CMC (e.g., chat, instant messengers)

to build an anxiety-free setting, which enables learners to express themselves more openly

at their own pace (Arnold, 2007). In recent years, studies (Beauvois, 1998; Dubreil, 2006;

Freiermuth, 1998; Kern, 1995; Warschauer, 1996; Wright, 2003) have indicated that CMC

may decrease FL communication apprehension because it can create a social and

communicative space where FL learners feel less inhibited and thereby decrease tension

and apprehension.

Conclusion

The chapter has looked at the three stages of language learning: input, processing,

and output, in order to explain the difficulties ESL/EFL learners may face in learning

a second/foreign language. It has been found that lack of sufficient input for learning L2/FL

in the environment where the target language is not the first language, and lack of

opportunities to frequently process the limited- sometimes filled with errors- input, can

cause language anxiety at the output (speaking) stage for ESL/EFL learners. “Language

learning is a cognitive activity that relies on encoding, storage, and retrieval processes, and

anxiety can interfere with each of these by creating a divided attention scenario for anxious

students” (MacIntyre, 1995, p. 96). The effect of such a problem is noticeable throughout

the learning of study skills basically; listening comprehension, speaking, vocabulary

acquisition, and ultimately low achievement (Gardner et al., 1997). Generally speaking, no

75
 Université Sétif2

matter the research results might be, language anxiety does affect L2/FL acquisition, and

the negative side seems more frequently to appear. The chapter has also shed light on cues

and signs that teachers may decode to recognise anxious students and how to create

a low-anxiety classroom by adopting specific techniques and behaviors.

To put it in nutshell, language anxiety has been theorized to occur at all the three

stages of language learning: input, processing and output. The description of these three

stages with relation to anxiety will point out why students make mistakes and the reasons of

linguistic difficulties they may face in learning and using the target language. This can offer

an insight to help understand anxiety experienced while learning study skills, vocabulary

and the grammatical features of the target language.

To conclude, research has established that foreign language anxiety exists.

Furthermore, it has shown that foreign language anxiety not only represents an

uncomfortable experience for students, but can also have negative effects on the learning

process and language acquisition. If we can help students reduce or overcome that anxiety,

it will lead to more engagement in the classroom. Educational settings have to strive to

make foreign language learning a more pleasant experience, which in turn will increase

students’ interest and make it a more successful endeavour as well.

76
 Université Sétif2

CHAPTER THREE
Research Design and Data Collection

Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 78

1. Research Context ............................................................................................................. 78

2. Participants ...................................................................................................................... 79

3. Research Design .............................................................................................................. 80

4. Instruments of Research .................................................................................................. 82

4.1 Background Questionnaire. ........................................................................................... 82

4.2 Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) ................................................ 82

4.2.1 Measurement of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety ............................................ 82

4.2.2. Description.................................................................................................................83

4.3 The AMBT (Attitude/Motivation Battery Test) adapted as (the Motivation Scale) .... 85

4.4 Anxiety Towards In-Class Activity Questionnaire (ATIAQ) ....................................... 86

4.5 Self-perceived Proficiency Scale ................................................................................... 87

4.6 Anxiety towards Test Types Evaluation........................................................................ 88

5. Procedures ....................................................................................................................... 88

6. Data Analysis Method ..................................................................................................... 89

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 90

77
 Université Sétif2

Introduction

This chapter describes the methodology used to investigate the anxiety of EFL

students at 20 Aout 1955 University of Skikda, Algeria. First, the research context is

presented. Then the participants selected for this study are described. Third, the research

design and the measures used in this study to assess each variable are described and

discussed. Finally, the data collection procedures are addressed.

1. Research Context

The Algerian government has begun, in recent years, a global reform of higher

education system to meet new system requirements imposed by the new socio-economical

changes. The choice fell on the “LMD: Licence= Bachelor-Master-Doctorate” system. In

a systemic approach, the LMD is a set of elements that interact, forming an integrated

whole, working for a common goal. It is divided into three elements : the Licence with 6

semesters (three years of study and the equivalence of the Bachelor Degree), a Master

degree of two years (4 semesters) is the second phase whereas the last period is the

Doctorate studies of three years of research (6semesters). In every semester, students are

expected to attend 400 hours in a 16 week period (i.e. 25 hours per week).

Currently, in Algeria, the system is in the use phase since most of Algerian

universities have adopted the LMD. For this, it is useful to note that the government has

already injected through educational, scientific, human, material and structural colossal

means to meet all requirements defined by new data and global trends. The LMD is

designed so that all system components, including teachers and students have become

involved in training and are no more spectators as in the “classic” system: the teacher has

the opportunity to offer training courses tailored to the available resources and skills based

78
 Université Sétif2

on a pedagogical team and the student has the opportunity to choose the path that suits him.

The student participates actively in his training; a number of hours are therefore restricted

to the training outside the university. In addition, students are better supported through

a tutoring system in which the accompaniment is more active. Although, the LMD system

carries many controversies, and was not welcome by the whole pedagogical bodies, it has

been implemented at several Algerian universities in 2004-2005 and many academic and

professional LMD training offers were proposed to newly enrolled students. Like other

universities and faculties, the department of English language and Literature at Skikda’s

University opted for the LMD system in its first year of creation in 2006.

In the current study, 2 nd year Licence phase students are the target population, they

are mainly chosen because they have already accomplished two semesters of their

formation, a period long enough to alleviate their anxiety related to novelty and

unfamiliarity with the university environment.

2. Participants

A total of 53 subjects representing the whole students of 2nd year students of English

department at 20 Aout 1955 University of Skikda participated in the investigation (actually,

only 51 subjects participated, there are two students who did not bring back their copies) .

The general information about these participants is summarized in Table 1. In order to

protect participants’ privacy, their responses to the questionnaires were collected

anonymously.

79
 Université Sétif2

Table1: General information about survey respondents

Years of learning Baccalaureate

Items Gender Region
English before university stream

4 5 6 7 >7 Male Female Scientific Literary Urban Rural

Number 2 3 8 32 6 8 43 11 40 38 13

% 4 6 16 62 12 16 84 22 78 75 25

3. Research Design

Research is the process of collecting, analysing, and interpreting data in order to

understand a phenomenon (Leedy & Ormrod, 2001). The research process is systematic in

that defining the objective, managing the data, and communicating the findings occur

within established frameworks and in accordance with existing guidelines. The frameworks

and guidelines provide researchers with an indication of what to include in the research,

how to perform the research, and what types of inferences are probable based on the data

collected.

The three common approaches to conducting research are quantitative, qualitative,

and mixed methods. Investigations of second/foreign language anxiety have been, for the

most part, quantitative studies; primarily correlational studies (Price, 1991).Quantitative

research can be used in response to relational questions of variables within the research.

“Quantitative researchers seek explanations and predictions that will generate to other

persons and places. “The intent is to establish, confirm, or validate relationships to develop

generalizations that contribute to theory” (Leedy and Ormrod, 2001, p. 102). Quantitative

research begins with a problem statement and involves the formation of a hypothesis,

a literature review, and a quantitative data analysis. Creswell (2003) states, quantitative

80
 Université Sétif2

research “employ strategies of inquiry such as experimental and surveys, and collect data

on predetermined instruments that yield statistical data” (p.18).The findings from

quantitative research can be predictive, explanatory, and confirming.

There are three broad classifications of quantitative research: descriptive,

experimental and causal comparative (Leedy and Ormrod, 2001). Given the nature of the

current study, the causal comparative approach has been opted for. In the causal

comparative research, the researcher examines how the independent variables are

re affected by the dependent variables and involves cause and effect relationships between

the variables. The factorial design focuses on two or more categories with the independent

variables as compared to the dependent variable (Vogt, 1999). The causal comparative

research design provides the researcher the opportunity to examine the interaction between

independent variables and their influence on dependent variables.

Several research methods exist to conduct quantitative research; in this study

a correlational research method is used. As far as this method is concerned, the research

examines the differences between the two characteristics of the study group; it is crucial to

observe the extent to which a researcher discovers statistical correlation between two

characteristics depending on some degree of how well those characteristics have been

calculated. Hence, validity and reliability are important components that affect correlation

coefficients. Bold (2001) noted that the purpose of a correlation study is to establish

whether two or more variables are related. Creswell (2002) defined correlation as

a statistical test to establish patterns for two variables. The statistical analysis of the

research question can be conducted through a progression or sequence of analyses using

a standard test for correlation that produces a result called “r”. The “r” coefficient is

reported with a decimal numeral in a process known as the Pearson Correlation Coefficient

(Cooper and Schindler, 2001).

81
 Université Sétif2

To sum up, the study will use descriptive statistics, causal comparative research

approach (t test and ANOVA), and correlation research approach (Pearson correlation) as

the research design.

4. Instruments of Research

Six instruments were used in the present study: (1) Background Questionnaire, (2)

Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), (3) Self-perceived Proficiency

Scale, (4) Motivation Scale, (5) Foreign Language Anxiety towards In-Class Activity

Questionnaire (ATIAQ), and (6) Anxiety towards Test Types Evaluation.

4.1 Background Questionnaire (see Appendix A).

The Background Questionnaire was designed to acquire the subjects’ background

information and English learning experience. The information intended to gain students’

gender, baccalaureate stream, region, length of time studying English formally , time spent

in studying English weekly out of classroom, achievement , communicative competence

and types of personality.

4.2 Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS)

4.2.1 Measurement of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety

Scovel (1978) has considered anxiety “not a simple, unitary, construct, but as

a cluster of affective states, influenced by factors which are intrinsic and extrinsic to the

foreign language learner” (p.134). The first study to propose an anxiety construct that was

specific to the situation of language learning was Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope’s (1986).

These authors called this construct Foreign Language Anxiety, which they submitted was

82
 Université Sétif2

“responsible for students’ negative emotional reactions to language learning” (Horwitz,

2001, p.114). As ways of measuring anxiety experienced in the language classroom were

sparse at that time, Horwitz and her associates designed an instrument for their study, the

Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), as a means of evaluating this

particular kind of anxiety, creating in the process a scale that would be used by a multitude

of researchers from then on.

4.2.2 Description

The FLCAS was created by Horwitz “to assess the specific anxiety experienced by

students in the foreign language classroom. It is a self-report measure that assesses the

degree of anxiety, as evidenced by negative performance expectancies and social

comparisons, psycho-physiological symptoms, and avoidance behaviors"

(Horwitz, 1986, p.559).

The FLCAS is a 5-point likert scale. It consists of 33 items, of which 8 items were

for communication apprehension (1,9,14,18,24,27,29,32); 9 items for fear of negative

evaluation (3,7,13,15,20,23,25,31 and 33); 5 items for test anxiety (2,8,10,19,21). As for

the remaining 11 items (4, 5,6,11,12,16,17,22,26,28 and 30), they were put in a group

which was named anxiety of English classes. For each item respondents were required to

respond with an answer like strongly agree (5pts), agree (4pts), undecided (3pts), disagree

(2pts) and strongly disagree (1pt). However, items 2, 5, 8, 11, 14,18,22,28 and 32 were to

be score reversed. The theoretical score range of this scale was from 33 to 165. The higher

the total anxiety scores were, the more anxious the student was. It has been shown that this

instrument is highly reliable, since the FLCAS has demonstrated the internal reliability

achieving an alpha coefficient 0.93 and test-retest reliability yielding an r=0.83 (P< 0.001).

The authors claimed that from the results of their study, conducted with 75 university

students of Spanish (beginner level), “students with debilitating anxiety in the foreign

83
 Université Sétif2

language classroom setting can be identified and that they share a number of characteristics

in common” (p.129). Results arising from the administration of the FLCAS indicated that

almost half the students were anxious about speaking, and over a third were worried when

they could not understand everything the teacher said. Almost two-fifths were sure that

other students were more proficient language learners than they were, and well over half

were concerned that they could not keep up with the pace of the language lesson. Over

two-thirds of students indicated that they felt uneasy about making mistakes, and a tenth of

the participants feared being ridiculed by other students when they spoke in the target

language.

Since the construct of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety was identified and the

Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale established by Horwitz and her associates

(1986), the FLCAS has been constantly employed by investigators in numerous studies.

Horwitz et al’s original study involved Anglophone learners of Spanish in their first year at

university. In other studies, language anxiety and its relationships to performance have

been explored at different levels of instruction: beginner, intermediate, and advanced

(Saito and Samimy, 1996), with learners who exhibited different degrees of anxiety:

low-, average-, and high-anxious students (Ganschow, Sparks, Anderson, Javorshy,

Skinner, &Patton, 1994), and in the investigation of the stability of language anxiety in

learners who were studying two languages simultaneously (Rodriguez & Abreu, 2003).

Much research into anxiety and the four skills has used the FLCAS: in listening (Kim,

2000; Elkhafaifi, 2005), in speaking (Philips, 1992), in reading in the foreign language

(Saito, Horwitz & Garza, 1999) and in reading in Spanish (sellers, 2000), in writing

(Cheng, 2002), and in distinguishing elements of anxiety in the speaking and the writing

skills (Cheng, Horwitz, & Schallert, 1999). Some researchers have used this scale in

investigating cognitive and affective variables associated with anxiety (Onwuegbuzie,

84
 Université Sétif2

Bailey, & Daley, 1999, 2000). Others have explored anxiety in connection with students’

language learning style (Bailey, Daley, & Onwuegbuzie, 1999), with perfectionism

(Gregersen & horwitz, 2002), and with language errors (Gregersen, 2003).

Many authors have used the FLCAS in its original form for students of a variety of

target languages (Aida, 1994; Bailey et al., 1999; Elkhafaifi, 2005; Gregersen & Horwitz,

2000; Onwuegbuzie et al., 2000; Saito et al., 1999; Sellers, 2000), translated into

participants’ mother tongue (Cheng, 2002; Cheng et al., 1999; Rodriguez & Abreu, 2003),

and adapted to suit different needs (Pappamihiel, 2001). In this research, The FLCAS is

used in its original form.

4.3 The AMBT (Attitude/Motivation Test Battery) adapted as (the Motivation

Scale) (see Appendix C)

The Attitude /Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) was developed by (Gardner, 1985),

in order to gauge the individual difference variables. The AMBT is by far the only

published and standardized test of second language motivation (Dörnyei, 2001). The

AMTB was originally developed for the Canadian context where the social psychology

dominated L2 motivation research (Dornyei, 2003). In Canada, there are Anglo-Canadian

learning French and French Canadian learning English as a second language. Therefore,

adaptation of the AMBT items to fit a specific learning context or socio-cultural milieu is

legitimate and factors like the cultural context, the language setting and the language

program, should be taken into account (Gardner, 1985, 2001). In total, the AMBT contains

19 measures and 133 items that are related to individual variables in language learning.

In this study an adapted form of AMBT is used; it is the Motivation scale established by

Chen (2006). The latter measures language learners’ motivation around three dimensions:

85
 Université Sétif2

motivation intensity, desire to learn the target language, and attitudes towards learning the

target language. The scale with 11 items is abridged and adjusted some items of AMBT in

order to fit specific learning contexts and different socio-cultural perspectives. The Cronbach’s

alpha coefficient of the motivation scale was 0.91. To prevent respondents from choosing only

one side of the rating scale, five out of the 11 items were negatively worded.

4.4 Anxiety Towards In-Class Activity Questionnaire (ATIAQ) (see Appendix D)

This study utilized ATIAQ (The Anxiety Toward In-Class Activity Questionnaire)

to discuss what in-class activities and instructors’ personalities and attitudes might provoke

and reduce EFL learners’ foreign language anxiety in 20 Aout 1955 Skikda’s University.

ATIAQ was originally designed by Young in 1990. Young conducted 135 university-level

beginning Spanish students to examine the relationship between anxiety and speaking

Spanish from the students’ perspective. The original questionnaire contained three sections:

the first section included twenty-four items about language anxiety for participants to

express agreement or disagreement; the second section used items related to certain in-class

activities for students to choose the most suitable description of students’ level of anxiety;

the third part asked students to list out what kinds of instructors lessen and extend learners’

anxiety.

This study adopted the second and third section to explore the answers of the

research questions three and four. In section two of the original questionnaire, participants

needed to read through the items and identify their anxiety levels. These items used

a five-point Likert scale, ranging from “Very Relaxed” (one point), “Relaxed” (two points),

“Neither Relaxed nor Anxious” (undecided) (three points), “Anxious” (four points), to

“Extremely Anxious” (five points). The higher scores signified that students suffered

higher levels of anxiety. After a few years, Chen (2002) adapted Young’s (1990) ATIAQ in

86
 Université Sétif2

his research. After modification, Chen extracted 20 items and put it into his revised

ATIAQ, and these 20 items could be categorized into four parts: listening, speaking,

reading and writing. The third section of the original questionnaire that was, Young’s

(1990) questionnaire, included two open questions: (a) what, if anything, does your

instructor do to decrease any anxiety you may have in your foreign language class? (b)

What characteristics does your instructor have which tend to reduce your anxiety about

speaking in class? The students had to choose these two questions from the twenty-two

items offered.

In 2002, Chen would like to revise these two questions because Chen thought that

instructors’ characteristics not only could help students reduce anxiety but also could

provoke learners’ anxiety; therefore, in Chen’s (2002) research, Young’s (1990) two

questions were revised into: (a) What behaviors and characteristics does your instructor

have which tend to increase your anxiety in foreign language class? (b) What behaviors and

characteristics does your instructor have which tend to reduce your anxiety in foreign

language class? Though Chen (2002) revised the two questions, the list of 22 items

remained the same as Young’s (1990) original questionnaire. In this study, Chen’s revised

questions and Young’s 22 items were utilized to explore research question three.

4.5 Self-perceived Proficiency Scale (see Appendix E).

The Self-perceived Proficiency Scale (Chen, 2006) concerns learners’ perception of

their English proficiency. Four items of the Self-perceived Proficiency Scale relates to

learners’ speaking, listening, reading, and writing competence and one was about their

overall FL proficiency. It’s a 5-point Likert scale. From Chen’s (2006) research, the pilot

study showed that the Cronbach alpha coefficient of the scale was 0.89.

87
 Université Sétif2

4.6 Anxiety towards Test Types Evaluation (see Appendix F).

The evaluation developed by the researcher concerns learner’ anxiety level around

the various types that they take. Using a 4-point Likert scale, participants rated their anxiety

levels towards the following test types: listening comprehension test, reading

comprehension test (time limited), reading comprehension test (no time limited), writing

test (time limited), writing test (no time limited), oral test (in which the instructor scores),

oral test (by tape recorder or computer), and grammar test.

5. Procedures

The data for this study were collected at 20 Aout 1955 Skikda’s university, during

the beginning of the second semester in 2010. The questionnaires were issued to the 53

subjects- representing the whole 2nd year students of English language department- during

the regularly scheduled classes. While the subjects were filling in the questionnaires, their

English teachers were invited to stay in the classroom with the researcher in order to win

the cooperation of the subjects. The researcher selected that period of time for avoiding

certain effects by other variables which might affect subjects’ anxiety level, such as the

pressure of facing upcoming final exams, the unfamiliarity with new English teachers, and

the frustration mood arose by the failures in first-term exams.

Before handing out the questionnaires, the researcher explained the purpose and the

importance of this study and the ways to fill in the questionnaires to all the subjects. Given

the nature of questionnaires and their length, they have been administered on four

successive days (every day during 30 minutes, before the beginning of first course). During

this period; a kind of friendship has been installed between participants and the researcher,

they were enthusiastic to correctly understand every question so that they could answer

properly and honestly. Most of students revealed that they suffer from this phenomenon,

88
 Université Sétif2

but they were unaware of its existence, every one has his own interpretation and story about

these negative feelings towards learning a foreign language although, studying English

language was for a great number of them a personal choice. All the 53 subjects

satisfactorily completed the questionnaires except for two subjects, their copies were not

returned back, so the study has been actually done on 51 subjects. At the very beginning,

students were told that their responses would not affect their grades in English classes by

their English teachers so that the confidentiality in this study was completely assured.

When the subjects all finished answering the questionnaires, the researcher collected the

paper, brought the questionnaires back and computed all the data.

6. Data Analysis Method

To analyse the data gathered through questionnaires, SPSS 17.0 was employed. As

far as the first part of our investigation- mainly focused on personal variables- was

concerned. Firstly, descriptive analysis was used to compute the means and standard

deviations for categories of anxiety to see the general situation of 2nd year university

students’ anxiety level in English classrooms at 20 Aout 1955 Skikda’s University, Then,

t- test was employed to see if there were any significant differences in English learning

anxiety between students due to gender, baccalaureate stream and the regions they came

from. After that, the researcher divided each of the following variables: achievement,

motivation, time spent learning English out of classroom, personality and communicative

competence to three levels (low, moderate and high), e.g. low motivated students, average

motivated students and high motivated students. To prove that the difference between

levels is not due to chance a One-way ANOVA was performed to determine the F-value.

Finally, Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient (r) was used to analyze the

89
 Université Sétif2

correlation between English learning classroom anxiety and personal variables mentioned

above.

Conclusion

Anxiety is one of the most negatively influential affective variables, which prevents

learners from successfully learning a foreign language. It makes language learners nervous

and afraid, which may contribute to poor achievement. As a teacher and administrator at

Skikda’s University, we have always been in permanent contact with English language

students. Almost all the time, they complain about some negative feelings and worry

experienced in an intensive manner especially during their language courses. These

emotions were not totally subjective as various studies comparing students’ levels of

anxiety in their foreign language class to their other classes (e.g. economy, math,

physics…) indicate that students experience considerably more anxiety in their foreign

language classes (Horwitz et al. 1986). To determine the phenomenon magnitude and its

pervasive effects on students’ learning, a research study has been carried out.

Participants in this study are 2nd year English department students at the

aforementioned university. They follow the LMD educational system and their number is

small (53 students, actually, 51 students participated). They were mainly chosen because

they have already accomplished two semesters of their formation, a period long enough to

alleviate their anxiety related to novelty and unfamiliarity with teachers and university

environment.

The study aimed to investigate correlates of foreign language anxiety associated

with some learners’ and situational variables. Because of complex relationships among the

previous factors, the study has used descriptive statistics, causal comparative research

90
 Université Sétif2

approach (t test and ANOVA), and correlation research approach (Pearson correlation) as

a research design.

To gain an overview about language anxiety and its relationship to other affective

and instructional variables, six instruments were used: (1) Background Questionnaire, (2)

Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), (3) Self-perceived Proficiency

Scale, (4) Motivation Scale, (5) Foreign Language Anxiety towards In-Class Activity

Questionnaire (ATIAQ), and (6) Anxiety towards Test Types Evaluation. In measuring

language anxiety, FLCAS is recognized in academic research circles as a consistent and

reliable instrument.

Concerning data collection, it has been handled carefully, avoiding stress periods

(e.g. exams, or facing final exams) and putting students in comfortable situations. During

questionnaires administration the teachers were invited to stay in class, furthermore, they

help to gain students’ trust. During four days, thirty minutes each day, before filling the

questionnaires, participants asked while necessary to remove any ambiguity. To protect

their privacy and stimulate their honesty, all data were collected anonymously.

As far as data analysis method was concerned, SPSS 17.0 was used. It has mainly

been designed for descriptive analysis processing, namely, to calculate, mean, standard

deviation, t-tests for independent variables, ANOVA and correlations.

91
 Université Sétif2

CHAPTER FOUR

Interpretation of Results and Implications

Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 94

1. Major Study Results and Findings .................................................................................. 94

1.1 Analysis of the FLCAS Results ..................................................................................... 94

1.1.1 Descriptive Statistics of FLCAS Scores ..................................................................... 95

1.1.2 Four FL Anxiety Categories of FLCAS. .................................................................... 96

1.1.3 Analysis of FLCAS Items. ......................................................................................... 97

1.2 Analysis of Anxiety at Different Personal Factors ........................................................ 99

1.2.1 Gender, Baccalaureate Stream, and Region. .............................................................. 99

1.2.2 Time Spent in Studying English. .............................................................................. 100

1.2.3 English Achievement................................................................................................ 102

1.2.4 Communicative Competence. ................................................................................... 103

1.2.5 Personality Trait ....................................................................................................... 105

1.2.6 Self-perceived Proficiency. ...................................................................................... 106

1.2.7 Motivation ................................................................................................................ 108

1.2.8 Pearson’s correlation between Anxiety and Personal Factors. ................................. 109

1.3 Analysis of the Relationship between Anxiety and Instructional Factors ................... 111

1.3.1 Anxiety towards In-class Activity. ........................................................................... 111

1.3.2 Instructors’ Behaviors and Characteristics. .............................................................. 113

1.3.3 Analysis of Relationship between Anxiety and Test Types. .................................... 116

2. Answering Research Questions and Hypothesis .......................................................... 118

3. Pedagogical Implications............................................................................................... 120

3.1 Helping Students Build a Healthy Self-perceived Proficiency in English. ................. 120

92
 Université Sétif2

3.2 Use a Wider Range of Measurements in Evaluating Students. ................................... 121

3.3 Arousing Students’ Motivation in English Learning................................................... 121

3.4 Creating a Low-anxious Classroom. ........................................................................... 122

3.5 Changing Teachers’ Role and Beliefs. ........................................................................ 123

4. Limitations of the Study and Future Perspectives ......................................................... 125

Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 126

93
 Université Sétif2

Introduction

Foreign language anxiety as a whole is a complex issue not just an isolated part of

language learning. Using a combination of complete data sources for the results and

discussions helps to assemble a more comprehensive and complete picture of the topic.

Therefore, in order to address the specific objectives stated in the research proposal, the

data collected from all the subjects of the study were analyzed by making use of mean and

standard deviation; t-tests and correlation coefficients. Therefore, in each part discussion

follows the presentation of the results of the data. This chapter is concerned by four parts:

firstly, analysis of the results of FLCAS, analysis of anxiety among students at different

personal factors, and analysis of the relationship between anxiety and instructional factors.

Secondly, answers to research questions and hypothesis will be addressed, then, from

results, some pedagogical implications will be recommended. Finally, limitations of the

current study will be specified and expectations from future research will be formulated.

1. Major Study Results and Findings

1.1 Analysis of the FLCAS Results

The FLCAS questionnaire is considered as the most important questionnaire in the

current study. It is mainly used to reveal the general state of language classroom anxiety

among 2nd year English students at 20 Aout 1955 university of Skikda. First of all, the

researcher used descriptive statistics through SPSS 17.0 programme to compute minimum,

maximum, mean and standard deviation scores and compare it with previous studies done

for the same purpose. The present study showed that the mean of anxiety scores for the

entire group of 51 subjects was 100.37 and the standard deviation was 20.03. The scores

ranged from 56 to 150. Compared with the previous studies, the subjects’ mean score of

94
 Université Sétif2

this study was slightly higher than the results of Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope’s (1986)

(M=94.5, SD=21.41) and Aida’s (1994) (M=96.7, SD=22.10).

1.1.1 Descriptive Statistics of FLCAS Scores

From data, we can say that we are in front of a normal distribution; normal

distribution is a specific type of distribution that have by bell-shaped, symmetric density

curves. It can be completely described by its mean and standard deviation. For all

distributions, 68% of the data will fall within one standard deviation of the mean, 95% will

fall within two standard deviations of the mean, and 99.7% will fall within three standard

deviations of the mean. This is called the 68-95-99.7 rule.

M: stands for mean

SD: stands for Standard Deviation

Table 2: A summary of the FLCAS scores of the present study.

Descriptive Statistics

N Minimum Maximum M S. D

The present study

51 56 150 100,37 20,03

To separate different levels of language anxiety, Oxford (1990) subdivided three

frequency scales of the FLCAS scores: high (mean score 3.5-4.4), medium (mean score

2.5-3.4) and low (mean score 1.0-2.4). Based on Oxford’s frequency scales, the subjects

were divided into three anxiety groups: high anxiety level, medium anxiety level, and low

anxiety level (see Table 3).

95
 Université Sétif2

Table 3: English anxiety level of subjects

Levels of anxiety N Percentage Total scores

High anxiety level 14 27% 114 - 150

Medium anxiety level 30 59% 81 - 113

Low anxiety level 07 14% 56 - 78

Table 3 indicated that 27% of students felt highly anxious with the score ranging

from 114 to 150; 59% of the students had anxious feelings at a medium level with the

score ranging from 81 to 113; and 14% of students belonged to low anxiety level group

with the score ranging from 56 to 78.

1.1.2 Four FL Anxiety Categories of FLCAS.

From literature mentioned in the first chapter, language anxiety has been divided

into three main categories: communication apprehension, that ranks the first followed by

Fear of negative evaluation and test anxiety. negative attitudes towards the English class is

a section added to FLCAS questionnaire, in order to get a general view on anxiety

combining personal and situational factors.

From Table 4, it can be noted that the mean score of the items for communication

apprehension was 3.64(SD=0.96), for test anxiety, 3.11(SD=1.05), for fear of negative

evaluation 3.09 (SD=1.05), and for negative attitudes towards the English class was 2.53

(SD=0.96). Clearly, among these four categories, communication apprehension was

reported in the highest level, Test anxiety was the second one with a slight rise comparing

with Fear of negative evaluation whereas, negative attitudes towards the English class was

relatively lower than the former three. This finding indicated that communication

apprehension provoked the highest anxiety level for the subjects. Communication requires

96
 Université Sétif2

the speakers to master not only language skills concerning vocabulary, pronunciation,

accent, and grammatical rules, but also a background knowledge about the target language

and personal communicative skills including expressive skills, listening skills, and

nonverbal skills (i.e., body language). Therefore, compared with other dimensions of

language anxiety, communication apprehension takes the first place. In previous studies

(Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986; Aida, 1994), fear of negative evaluation ranked second

which is not the case in the current study, it is test anxiety that takes the second place, this

ranking put several question marks on tests validity, ways and situations of administration

at 20 Aout 1955 Skikda University, perhaps accurate future investigations in that particular

area might bring answers to this pertinent finding.

Table 4: Different categories of anxiety on FLCAS questionnaire

FLCAS Scores of each item

Rank Types
M SD

1 Communication apprehension 3.64 0.96

2 Test anxiety 3.11 1.05

3 Fear of negative evaluation 3.09 1.05

4 Negative attitudes towards the English class 2.53 0.96

1.1.3 Analysis of FLCAS Items.

After analyzing the frequency of the students’ responses of each item, this

researcher found that more than 40% of students reported agreeing and strongly agreeing in

eleven FLCAS items (9,29, 1, 24,15,27,10,20, 3,8 and 33), and disagreeing and strongly

97
 Université Sétif2

disagreeing in the four reverse FLCAS items (2, 14, 18, and 32). The analysis of this result

indicated that students suffered from a much higher level of anxiety on the following items

(9, 29, 1, 24, 15,27,10,20, 3, 8, 33, 2, 14, 18, and 32).

Table 5 demonstrates the fifteen items, which began with the one having the highest

frequency. According to the fifteen items, this study can categorize four factors which may

most easily provoke students’ FL anxiety. The factors include the followings: (1) oral work

and communication in English class (items 9,29,1, 27, 20, 14, 20, 3), (2) lack of

self-confidence (items 18, 32, 24, 15), (3) test anxiety (item 10), (4) fear of negative

evaluation (items 2, 8, 33).

Table 5: Percentage of fifteen items on which students agree and strongly agree

Items Percentage
Item 9. I start to panic when I have to speak without preparation in English class. 80.4%
Item 32. I would probably feel comfortable around native speakers of English. (Reverse) 80.4%
Item 18. I feel confident when I speak in English class. (Reverse). 78.4%
Item 29. I get nervous when I don’t understand every word of the English teacher says. 76.5%
Item 14. I would not be nervous speaking in the foreign language with native speakers.
(Reverse). 66.6%
Item 1. I never feel quite sure of myself when I am speaking in my English class. 58.8%
Item 24. I feel very self-conscious about speaking English in front of other students 58.8%
Item 15. I get upset when I don’t understand what the teacher is correcting. 57%
Item 27. I get nervous and confused when I am speaking in my English class. 57%
Item10. I worry about the consequences of failing my English classes. 53%
Item 20. I can feel my heart pounding when I am going to be asked to speak in English class. 53%
Item 2. I don’t worry about making mistakes in English class. (Reverse). 47%
Item 3. I tremble when I know That I’m going To be called on to speak in English class. 45.1%
Item 8. I am usually at ease during tests in my English class. 45%
Item 33. I get nervous when the English teacher asks questions which I haven’t prepared in
advance. 43.2%

98
 Université Sétif2

1.2 Analysis of Anxiety at Different Personal Factors

1.2.1 Gender, Baccalaureate Stream, and Region.

From Background Questionnaire, the following personal factors are to be analysed:

gender, baccalaureate stream, region, number of hours spent in studying English language

outside of class per week, English achievement, interpersonal communicative competence,

motivation, self-perceived proficiency in English and finally personality trait.

From the first three items of Background Questionnaire, namely, gender,

baccalaureate stream and region, the researcher tried to investigate the possible

relationships between the aforementioned personal factors and language anxiety. To fulfil

that purpose a t-test has been performed.

SPSS offered us a clear comparison of the mean scores and standard deviations of

the overall FLCAS in terms of gender, baccalaureate stream and regions. The results in

Table 6 indicated that there was no significant difference in the anxiety level in terms of

gender, baccalaureate stream and region (t=1.03, 1.67, 2.10, P>0.05). Although no clearly

distinction in FL anxiety was found between males and females, literary and scientific

streams, rural and urban backgrounds, we can see that the FLCAS scores of male, literary

stream and rural students were relatively higher than those of female, scientific stream and

urban students. Since the research was somewhat limited in the sense that it restricted its

participants to only one university, and moreover the sample was in a certain number, it is

necessary to have a further exploration on the relationship between language anxiety and

gender, baccalaureate stream and region in the future.

99
 Université Sétif2

Table 6: t-test of FL anxiety level for gender, baccalaureate stream, and region

FLACS Scores
Variables N t Sig
M SD

Male 8 3.36 0.97

Gender 1.03 0.16
Female 43 2.98 0.90

Literary 40 3.14 0.93

Baccalaureate Stream 1.67 0.23
Scientific 11 2.67 0.84

Rural 14 3.47 0.96

Region 2.10 0.28
Urban 37 2.88 0.89

1.2.2 Time Spent in Studying English.

In the background questionnaire, the subjects were requested to report how much

time they spent in learning English after class each week. Table 7 showed their responds

that 32 students (63%) spend 0-2 hours, 8 students (16 %) 2 to 3 hours, and 11 students

(21%) more than 3 hours in studying English after class a week. On the whole, the students

in this study did not take much time to study English weekly after class. The results in

Table 7 imply some differences among students with long studying time and short studying

time in English, as far as their English anxiety levels were concerned. One-way ANOVA

helped distinguish the differences in FLCAS among the three groups with different learning

hours (0-2 hours, 2-3 hours and more than 3 hours) ( see table 8). The result indicated that

the students who spent more time studying English were usually less anxious than the

students who spent little time in studying English (see figure 2). FL anxiety might be

lightened by increasing learning time in English.

100
 Université Sétif2

Table 7: FL anxiety level among three groups of different time spent in studying English

Time spent in learning English after classroom FLCAS Scores of each item
N
Per week M SD

Between (0 – 2 hours) 32 105.53 15.10

Between (2– 3 hours) 8 104.63 16.74

>3 hours 11 82.27 25.36

Table 8: ANOVA of time spent learning English among three anxiety groups level

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig

Between Groups 4600.91 2 2300.45

Within Groups 15467.02 48 322.23 7.14 000
Total 20067.93 50

Figure 2: correlation between foreign language anxiety and time spent learning English
out of class per week.

101
 Université Sétif2

1.2.3 English Achievement.

Of all the 51 respondents, high level of English achievement accounted for 23%

(12 students), average level, 44% (22 students), and low level, 33% (17 students). Table 9

listed the FLCAS scores of the three levels. As illustrated in the table, the top achievement

learners had the lowest FLCAS scores (M= 78.08 SD=16.35), and the average achievement

learners had the moderate FLCAS scores (M= 99.18, SD=11.40), while the low

achievement learners had the highest FLCAS scores (M= 117.65, SD=14.42). One-way

ANOVA showed that there was significant difference among the anxiety of the three levels

(See Table 10). There was a negative relationship between FL anxiety and English

achievement (see figure 3). That is to say, highly anxious students were more likely to

receive lower grades than students having a low level of anxiety.

Table 9: FL anxiety level for different English achievement

FLCAS Scores
English Achievement N Percentage
M SD

Low 17 33% 117.65 14.42

Average 22 44% 99.18 11.40

High 12 23% 78.08 16.35

Table 10: ANOVA of FL anxiety level for different English achievement

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig

Between Groups 11069.45 2 5534.72 29.52 000
Within Groups 8998.48 48 187.46
Total 20067.93 50

102
 Université Sétif2

Figure 3: correlation between foreign language anxiety and achievement.

1.2.4 Communicative Competence.

In order to identify whether communicative competence has significant effect on

the students’ FL anxiety, a background questionnaire (see Appendix A) was included on

the basis of previous studies by MacIntyre and Gardner (1989). The results in Table 11

demonstrated that there was a significant difference among the three groups: good

communicative group, average communicative group and poor communicative group, as

far as their English anxiety levels were concerned. The mean score (FLCAS) of subjects

with good communicative competence (M= 81.67, SD=14.38) was much lower than that of

subjects with average and poor communicative competence (M= 100.72, 121.80;

SD=16.59, 11.95). One-way ANOVA revealed that significant differences existed among

good, average, and poor communicative competence groups (see Table 12). The result

further indicated that communicative competence is one of the main factors that influence

the FL anxiety level (see figure 4). Students with few interpersonal abilities or

103
 Université Sétif2

communicative skills may have social anxiety, and thus easily become anxious when they

communicate with others.

Table 11: FL anxiety level for different communicative competence

FLCAS Scores
Communicative Competence N Percentage
M SD

Good 12 23% 81.67 14.38

Average 29 57% 100.72 16.59

Poor 10 20% 121.80 11.95

Table 12: ANOVA of anxiety level for communicative competence

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig
Between Groups 8792.27 2 4396.13 18.71 0.000
Within Groups 11275.66 48 1243.90
Total 20067.93 50

Figure 4: correlation between foreign language anxiety and communicative competence.

104
 Université Sétif2

1.2.5 Personality Trait

Based on Krashen’s (1981) belief that an outgoing personality may contribute to

foreign language learning, this study investigated the subjects’ personality by the

background questionnaire. In the questionnaire, 08 (15%) students considered themselves

to be extroverts or lean towards extroverts, 24 (47%) took themselves as ones between

introvert and extrovert, and 19 (38%) believed themselves to be introverts or lean towards

introverts (see Table 13). One-way ANOVA (see Table 14) revealed that significant

differences existed among the three groups. The results in Table 13 indicated significant

difference between extroverted and introverted students. To be concrete, the mean FLCAS

scores of the introverted were higher than those of the extroverted. That may imply that

personality does interconnect with language anxiety. Introverts are more anxious in

learning English than extroverts (see figure 5).

Table 13: FL anxiety level for different personality

FLCAS Scores
Personality N Percentage
M SD

Extrovert or lean towards extrovert 8 15% 72.75 15.45

Between extroversive and introversive 24 47% 95.37 10.71

Introvert or lean towards introvert 19 38% 118.32 12.77

Table 14: ANOVA of FL anxiety level for different personality

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig
Between Groups 12824.75 2 6412.37 42.49 0.000
Within Groups 7243.18 48 150.89
Total 20067.93 50

105
 Université Sétif2

Figure 5: correlation between foreign language anxiety and personality trait.

Once personal factors that occurred in Background Questionnaire have fully been

analysed, we moved to investigate self-perceived proficiency and motivation

questionnaires.

1.2.6 Self-perceived Proficiency.

According to the students’ self-evaluation on their own English proficiency,

subjects with high anxiety seemed to believe that they themselves had a low proficiency

and were not satisfied with their English performance. They got the lowest scores on the

Self-perceived Proficiency Scale (M=9.36; SD=1.01) (See Table 15). While those with low

anxiety seemed to have high self-efficacy beliefs towards English learning and they got the

highest scores on the Self-perceived Proficiency Scale (M=20.00; SD=0.81), students

suffering from a moderate level of anxiety perceived their proficiency as average

(M= 11.90; SD= 1.77). The result of one-way ANOVA showed that there were clear

differences in self-perceived proficiency scores among the three groups (i.e., low-anxiety,

moderate-anxiety, and high-anxiety groups) (see Table 16 & figure 6).This finding

indicated that learners with high self-perceived proficiency may deal with their anxiety

106
 Université Sétif2

better than learners with low self-perceived proficiency. Low self-perceived proficiency

can easily produce FL anxiety because students doubt their abilities to complete the

learning task and fear of failure. This result is consistent with other research about

relationship between self-perceived proficiency and foreign language anxiety

(Aida, 1994; Kitano, 2001).

Table 15: Self-perceived proficiency level among three anxiety groups.

Self-perceived Proficiency
Anxiety Groups N
M SD

Low 7 20.00 0.81

Moderate 30 11.90 1.77

High 14 9.36 1.01

Total 51 12.31 3.60

Table 16: ANOVA of self-perceived proficiency level among three anxiety groups
Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig
Between Groups 540.82 2 270.41 7.92 0.000
Within Groups 1637.77 48 34.12
Total 2178.59 50

Figure 6: correlation between foreign language anxiety and self-perceived proficiency.

107
 Université Sétif2

1.2.7 Motivation

An analysis of the data from the motivation scale revealed that the participants

responded with a medium degree of overall motivation in English learning. The result in

Table 17 indicated that among the three anxiety groups, the low-anxiety group had the

highest mean of motivation scores (M=37.43, SD=1.13), while the high-anxiety group had

the lowest mean of motivation scores (M=19.43, SD=2.37), which was lower than the

medium range (M=28.33, SD=2.18). The results in Table 18 showed that there was

a significant difference in motivational level between the high-anxiety group and the

low-anxiety group. The high-anxiety learners had less interest and lower motivation for

English learning than the low-anxiety learners. Higher motivation was associated with

lower anxiety (see figure 7). There was a bidirectional relationship between foreign

language anxiety and motivation.

Table 17: Motivation level among three anxiety groups

Motivation Scores
Anxiety Groups N
M SD

Low 7 37.43 1.13

Moderate 30 28.33 2.18

High 14 19.43 2.37

Total 51 27.14 6.06

Table 18: ANOVA of motivation level among three anxiety groups

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig
Between Groups 1615.88 2 807.94 13.63 000
Within Groups 2843.92 48 59.24
Total 4459.8 50

108
 Université Sétif2

Figure 7: correlation between foreign language anxiety and motivation.

1.2.8 Pearson’s Correlation between Anxiety and Personal Factors.

In order to explore the relationship between FL anxiety and personal factors,

Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (r) was performed. The result of the

correlation analysis revealed that there were correlations, both negative and positive,

between FL anxiety and the six variables (i.e., English achievement, personality,

communicative competence, self-perceived proficiency, motivation, and time spent in

studying English ) (see Table 19). As shown in Table 19, six significant correlations were

found in this study, which were good predictors of the foreign language anxiety. First, self-

perceived proficiency, motivation, and time spent in studying English were found to have

obvious negative correlations with FL anxiety (r= - 0.812; - 0.811, - 0.459). Second,

communicative competence, achievement and personality were found to have positive

significant correlation with FL anxiety (r=0.587; 0.842; 0.799, p=.000). The finding implies

that students tend to do better in dealing with the FL anxiety and have lower level of FL

anxiety if they have good English achievement, high self-perceived proficiency, strong

109
 Université Sétif2

learning motivation, good communicative competence, extroverted personality, or more

time spent in studying English.

Table 19: Pearson’s correlation of FL anxiety & personal factors

Variables r Sig

Self-perceived proficiency& FLCAS scores(overall anxiety) - 0.812 0.000

Motivation & FLCAS scores(overall anxiety) - 0.811 0.000

Time spent in studying English & FLCAS scores(overall anxiety) - 0.459 0.000

Communicative competence & FLCAS scores(overall anxiety) 0.587 0.000

English achievement & FLCAS scores (overall anxiety) 0.842 0.000

Personality & FLCAS scores(overall anxiety 0.799 0.000

Figure 8: correlation between foreign langue anxiety and self-perceived proficiency,

motivation, time spent in studying English language out of classroom per week,

achievement, personality, and communicative competence.

110
 Université Sétif2

1.3 Analysis of the Relationship between Anxiety and Instructional Factors

1.3.1 Anxiety towards In-class Activity.

In order to explore the kind of activities that influence the level of FL anxiety, this

study used the Anxiety towards In-Class Activity Questionnaire (ATIAQ) to investigate

subjects’ perspective on the 20 in-class activities (see Appendix E). Table 20 showed us the

20 in-class activities arranged by a descending order based on the anxiety level that the

learners responded to. According to the scoring rules, the higher scores represent the higher

levels of anxiety. It can be seen that there were five activities within the highest level of

anxiety (M >3.7). They were as follows: Make an oral presentation in front of the class

(M = 3.96, SD = 0.93). Be called on to give an answer (M = 3.90, SD = 1.06). Take

dictation test on vocabulary or text (M = 3.80, SD = 0.74). Introduce yourself in English in

front of the class (M = 3.78, SD = 1.10). Watch the movies and then turn in your project

about the movies (M = 3.76, SD =1.06). Among the five high-anxiety activities, three of

them were speaking-oriented activities, and involve a risk of exposure, which implied that

learners may feel nervous or fearful when they are exposed to others to speak English.

The bottom of Table 20 displayed that there were six activities within the lowest

level of anxiety (M<2.5). They were as follows: Learn to sing English songs as a class after

the instructor (M = 1.63, SD = 0.48). Repeat as a class after the instructor

(M = 1.80, SD = 0.77). Read silently in class (M = 1.98, SD = 0.83). Work in groups of 2

or 3 and prepare a skit (M = 2.16, SD = 0.83). Compete in class games by teams

(M= 2.29, SD= 0.57). Learn English in groups of 3 or 4 in class (M= 2.45, SD=1.02). It is

obvious that five of these six activities are group-oriented activities. This finding indicated

that cooperative activities and group learning are considered the effective and efficient

learning ways to reduce students’ fear of self-exposure since students can express

themselves in the name of the whole group instead of individuals.

111
 Université Sétif2

Table 20: Activities arranged by anxiety level

Anxiety level
Activities
M SD

Item 6. Make an oral presentation in front of the class. 3.96 0.93

Item 18. Be called on to give an answer. 3.90 1.06

Item 13. Take dictation test on vocabulary or text. 3.80 0.74

Item 19. Introduce yourself in English in front of the class. 3.78 1.10

Item 14. Watch the movies and then turn in your project about the movies. 3.76 1.06

Item 16. Write your work on the board. 3.49 0.94

Item 9. Practice conversation individually with instructor in class. 3.39 0.94

Item 1. Read orally alone in class. 3.31 1.14

Item 10. Interview each other in pairs in class. 3.18 0.84

Item 20. Translate Arabic/French into English in class. 3.00 0.80

Item 17. Translate into English Arabic/French in class. 2.88 0.65

Item 8. Repeat individually after the instructor. 2.86 1.07

Item 2. Write a composition in class. 2.76 0.90

Item 4. Do exercises in the book in class. 2.45 0.94

Item 5. Learn English in groups of 3 or 4 in class. 2.45 1.02

Item 7. Compete in class games by teams. 2.29 0.57

Item 11. Work in groups of 2 or 3 and prepare a skit. 2.16 0.83

Item 12. Read silently in class. 1.98 0.83

Item 15. Repeat as a class after the instructor. 1.80 0.77

Item 3. Learn to sing English songs as a class after the instructor. 1.63 0.48

112
 Université Sétif2

1.3.2 Instructors’ Behaviors and Characteristics

For exploring how the instructors’ behaviors and characteristics influence the

students’ FL anxiety, this study also employed two questions (see Appendix E) in the last

section of ATIAQ to examine a list of 22 teachers’ behaviors and characteristics that

probably relate to anxiety. Subjects’ responses to these activities were collected and ranged

by computing their frequencies and percentages in a descending order. As seen in Table 22,

51 students regarded 14 instructors’ behaviors and characteristics related to anxiety

reduction.

Table 21 displayed the instructors’ behaviors and characteristics that might increase

the students’ foreign language anxiety. The students reported 8 instructors’ behaviors and

characteristics that were related to an increase in anxiety. Judging from the subjects’

responses to the 22 instructors’ behaviors and characteristics, a successful English teacher

should be the one who is patient and friendly, have a sense of humor, understand students,

always compliment and encourage students, and make students feel comfortable and

relaxed. While a typical anxiety-provoking English teacher might have the following

characteristics: scolds, grim, threatening students by giving test, poor communicator, and

unpredictable (see table 21). The results revealed that teacher play an important role in

influencing students’ FL anxiety in class. Teachers should pay attention to their own

classroom behavior and be acutely aware of the behaviors which may cause students’

classroom anxiety.

113
 Université Sétif2

Table 21: Instructors’ behaviors and characteristics related to an increase in anxiety

Items Frequency Percentage

Item 13. Instructor scolds students. 47 92.15%

Item 9. Instructor says that he will fail you if you do 44 86.27%

not study hard.

Item 4. Instructor tries to fail us by using difficult 42 82.35%

tests.

Item 3. Instructor corrects your errors in front of the 41 80.39%

class.

Item 11. Instructor is rigid and never smiles in class. 38 74.51%

Item 8. Instructor does not provide any make up test 31 60.78%

when you fail in the exam.

Item 17. Instructor often gives students a quiz without 29 56.86%

notice.

Item 19. Instructor says that you will have no future if 26 50.98%
you don’t have good English.

114
 Université Sétif2

Table 22: Instructors’ behaviors and characteristics related to anxiety reduction

Items Frequency Percentage

Item 16. Instructor manner is relaxed 49 96.07%

Item 6. Instructor says that he is not going to fail the 48 94.11%

students.

Item 14. Instructor is very friendly. 47 92.15%

Item 22. Instructor understands students. 45 88.23%

Item 12. Instructor has a good sense of humour. 43 84.31%

Item 7. Instructor is patient. 42 82.35%

Item 18. Instructor does not make you feel stupid when 38 74.51%
you make a mistake.

Item 1. Instructor compliments students. 37 72.54%

Item 5. Instructor makes students feel comfortable. 35 68.62%

Item 15. Instructor has attitude that mistakes are no big 32 62.74%
deal when learning English.

Item 21. Instructor has attitude that mistakes are made 31 60.78%
by everyone when learning English.

Item 2. Students can volunteer answers and are not 28 54.90%

called on to provide responses.

Item 10. Instructor’s manner of correction is not harsh. 29 49.02%

Item 20. Instructor encourages students to speak 24 47.05%

English.

115
 Université Sétif2

1.3.3 Analysis of Relationship between Anxiety and Test Types

To ascertain what types of tests will provoke learners’ FL anxiety; the researcher

designed a 4-point Likert scale (see Appendix F) to investigate learners’ affective responses

to the eight test types. The results were displayed in Table 23. For all subjects, oral test in

which assessors scores ranks the first (M = 3.35), and then was listening comprehension

test (M = 3.04), writing test with time limit (M= 2.88), reading test with time limit

(M = 2.69), oral test by tape recorder or computer (M= 2.37), reading test (no time limited)

(M = 2.08) ,writing test no time limited (M = 2.04), and grammar test (M = 1.69).

The result showed that the participants had significantly strong anxiety in oral test.

Oral test involves communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation, and test

anxiety and therefore it proved to be the most anxiety-provoking activity. Horwitz,

Horwitz and Cope (1986) pointed out that students may feel “very self-conscious, fear, or

even panic when they are asked to engage in oral activities that expose their inadequacies”

(p. 128). MacIntyre and Gardner (1991b) explained that oral test was more complicated in

a foreign language context because it likely provoked test anxiety and communication

apprehension. However, from the present finding, it was found that oral test by tape

recorder or computer could cause less FL anxiety than oral test with assessors’ direct

grading. That may imply that students may be more apprehensive when they are required

to engage in speaking activities in a situation where assessors directly observe and evaluate

their performance. To reduce FL anxiety, oral test can adopt a relatively low-anxious way

(e.g., tape recorder, or computer) to evaluate students’ achievement. Surprisingly, listening

comprehension test ranks second among different types of tests that evoke students’

anxiety. Years ago, the listening skill was given less importance compared with other study

skills; recently, many studies have been devoted to investigate that skill and its direct effect

on the speaking skill since the latter is considered as the most anxiety-provoking skill.

116
 Université Sétif2

Table 23: Anxiety towards test types.

Items M SD

Item 6. Oral test (in which the assessor scores) 3.35 0.48

Item 1. Listening comprehension test 3.04 0.72

Item 4. Writing test (time limited) 2.88 0.76

Item 2. Reading test (time limited) 2.69 0.73

Item 7. Oral test (by tape recorder or computer) 2.37 0.59

Item 3. Reading test (no time limited) 2.08 0.77

Item 5. Writing test (no time limited) 2.04 0.59

Item 8. Grammar test 1.69 0.76

The other finding in the investigation was that the time constraint was one major

source of writing and reading apprehension. Limitation of time might increase students’ test

anxiety because less time is available for them to consider their answers. It is a challenge

for students to respond efficiently and successfully in such extremely limited time. As

Zuriff (1999) stated, the time constraint might be the most anxiety-provoking factor for

test-anxious examinees. The timing condition may increase examinees’ symptoms of test

anxiety, and make them unable to work. In addition, students who feel anxious in different

test types might be attributed to their deficient language proficiency. Culler and Holahan

(1980) pointed out that test anxiety may be caused by deficits in students’ learning or study

skills. Some students experience anxiety during a test situation because they do not know

how to process or organize the course material and information. Moreover, due to lacking

the knowledge of language, students are not sure of their ability to complete the test, which

117
 Université Sétif2

impair their confidence and self-efficacy, and consequently heighten their fears of negative

evaluation about their performance of the tests.

2. Answering Research Questions and Hypothesis

The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between English

learning classroom anxiety and some affective and situational factors among 2nd year

English language department students with particular reference to 20 Aout 1955 University

of Skikda. So, as to address the above major objective, the following basic research

questions were raised.

1. What is the general level of foreign language anxiety among 2nd year English language

students at 20 August 1955 Skikda’s University?

2. What personal factors are related to foreign language anxiety?

3. What instructional factors are related to foreign language anxiety?

4. What strategies could teachers and students use to reduce foreign language anxiety?

Because of the pervasive effect of language anxiety on learning and its relationship

to other affective and situational factors, it has been hypothesized that if the amount of

language anxiety is alleviated within the classroom setting, then students’ performance and

academic achievement will be better.

As to answer the first research question, the study indicated the existence of

different levels of FL anxiety among 2nd year English department students at 20 Aout 1955

Skikda’s University , 27% of students suffer from a high level of anxiety, 59% are medium

anxious students, whereas 14% scored a low level of anxiety ( see table 3) . Among the four

categories of FLCAS, what the subjects felt most anxious was communication

apprehension. Test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation were the second and the third

118
 Université Sétif2

respectively. Negative attitude towards English class was what the students worried the

least (see table 4). After analyzing the items of FLCAS, we categorized five factors which

may most easily provoke students’ FL anxiety. The factors include, (1) oral work in

English class (2) test anxiety, (3) lack of self-confidence, (4) fear of negative evaluation,

and (5) lack of learning interests.

Concerning the possible internal or personal sources of English language anxiety,

which included gender, baccalaureate stream, region, personality, communicative

competence, English achievement, motivation, self-perceived proficiency in English, and

the amount of time spent in studying English after class. The study showed that English

anxiety scores measured by FLCAS have no statistically significant differences between

male and female subjects, literary and scientific baccalaureate streams, rural and urban

subject (see table 6), but due to the small sample size, the conclusion was not final. It is

necessary to have a further exploration on the issues in the future. However, the other six

possible sources (i.e., personality, communicative competence, English achievement,

motivation, self-perceived proficiency in English, and the amount of time spent in studying

English after class) were found to be important factors affecting students’ English anxiety

levels. The results of the Pearson correlation research showed significant correlations

between anxiety and each one of the six factors (see table 19 & figure 8).

Third, the instructional sources of English language anxiety were probed. The

results revealed that classroom activities, teachers’ behaviors and characteristics, and the

types of tests were the main sources arousing students’ English language anxiety in EFL

classroom. Speaking-oriented activities were judged by students as the most anxiety-

producing activities because they have one particularly feature in common ‘a high student

exposure requirement’. Cooperative activities and group learning were considered less

anxious because they construct a safe and relaxed environment in which learners can

119
 Université Sétif2

express and exchange their ideas without the threat of failure or appraisals

(Sandberg, 1995). Instructors’ behaviors and characteristics that greatly lighten students’

foreign language anxiety were the followings: being patient and friendly, having sense of

humor, understanding students, complimenting and encouraging students and making

students feel comfortable and relaxed (see table 22). Instructors’ behaviors and

characteristics that most irritate students’ anxiety were the followings: scolds, grim,

threatening students by giving test, poor communicator, and unpredictable (see table21). As

far as the test types were concerned, oral tests with assessors grading were regarded as the

most anxiety-producing evaluation form. In addition, listening comprehension test,

time-constrained writing test and time-constrained reading test could cause students high

anxiety. Therefore and in conformity with literature, this study believes that oral-orientation

and limitation of time might be the important factors to increasing students’ test anxiety

(see table 23).

3. Pedagogical Implications

Based on the above discussion, we can obtain some implications that foreign

language teachers may employ in their teaching to reduce learners’ anxiety.

3.1 Helping Students Build a Healthy Self-perceived Proficiency in English.

A healthy self-perceived FL proficiency is crucial for students. Beliefs of

self-efficacy or self-perceived proficiency may influence “individuals’ pursued courses of

action, effort expended in given endeavors, persistence in the confrontation of obstacles,

and resilience to adversity” (Mills, Pajares & Herron, 2007, p. 419). Teachers should

develop students’ self-beliefs by fostering their successful learning experiences, giving

120
 Université Sétif2

them positive deserving feedback, and offering opportunities for them to share their peers’

successes (Bandura, 1997). In addition, teachers’ instruction of effective language learning

strategies, such as effective self-regulatory practices, can lead to stronger self-efficacy and

increased FL achievement (Mills, Pajares & Herron, 2007).

3.2 Use a Wider Range of Measurements in Evaluating Students.

The present findings show that students feel highly anxious about language tests,

especially oral tests. Students’ test anxiety may deal with their proficiency and learning

skills, so teachers need to raise questions from easy to difficult, drop the degree of

difficulty of tasks, loosen the time of requirements for task completion, and offer enough

instructions on FL learning skills (Culler & Holahan, 1980). Cameron (2001) confirmed

that although traditional tests are important, they should not be the dominant way to

evaluate students’ FL proficiency. Traditional tests usually function as a one-time measure,

time-constrained response, and only one correct answer per question. This kind of tests

little considers students’ thinking processes used to arrive at their answers. FL teachers

should use a wider range of measurements (alternative or formative assessments) in

measuring students. Beyond the use of traditional tests, many other effective assessing

methods (e.g., role-plays, self-reflections, observations, video productions, or portfolios)

can be used to evaluate student proficiency in the FL classroom (Needham, 2002).

3.3 Arousing Students’ Motivation in English Learning.

The study results revealed that motivation correlated negatively with anxiety; in

other words, the higher motivation, the lower anxiety. Therefore, creating a motivational

classroom is crucial to English learning. Dönyei (2001) pointed out that the main

approaches of creating initial student motivation include enhancing students’ attitudes and

121
 Université Sétif2

values concerning the target language, increasing students’ expectancy of success,

developing students’ goal-orientedness, making the teaching materials suitable for the

learners, and creating realistic learner beliefs. Dönyei suggested that in order to maintain

and protect students’ motivation, teachers should adopt the following strategies: setting

particular learning aims, presenting tasks in a motivating way, protecting learners’

self-esteem and developing their self-confidence, cultivating their learning autonomy, and

encouraging self-motivating learning strategies.

3.4 Creating a Low-anxious Classroom.

A relaxed classroom atmosphere or environment is significant in reducing anxiety.

The following strategies are believed to be useful to reduce FL anxiety: (1) Making use of

purposeful group work or collaborative activities. Teachers can provide students with group

or pair activities which can increase the amount of students’ participation in the classroom

and lower the anxiety for students. (2) Using non-threatening ways to correct students’

errors. Teachers can use questionnaires at the beginning of the class to learn about students’

attitudes towards correction and feedback. Based on the students’ attitudes and preferences,

teachers can then adopt appropriate correcting strategies to deal with students’ errors

(McKeating, 1981). Phillips (1991) suggested that teachers should correct students’ errors

by modeling rather than overt correction. Nunan and Lamb (1996) argued that “teachers

should make use of correction methods which encourage purposeful learners’ involvement

by allowing opportunities to self-correct or analyze the errors facilitate learning” (p. 76).

Self-correction, peer-to-peer correction, and group correction may be an effective and

non-threaten way to handle students’ mistakes. (3) Providing learners interesting and

moderate tasks and materials. Tasks and materials set by teachers should cater for students’

interest and need, and the difficulty should match their appropriate zone of proximal

122
 Université Sétif2

development (ZPD). ZPD refers to “the distance between the actual development level as

determined by independent problem-solving and the level of potential development as

determined by problem-solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable

peers” ( Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86). According to the theory of ZPD, teachers should set tasks

at the potential level that learners can solve a problem with the help of teachers or peers.

(4) Paying attention to the individual difference.

Factors such as self-efficacy, personality trait, motivation, communicative

competence, proficiency, and learning habits are thought to influence students’ FL anxiety,

so teachers should involve these factors into their instruction. When teaching in the

classroom, they should pay attention to the students who tend to be more anxious or more

sensitive to others’ evaluation. In the face of these students, teachers should be friendly and

patient, give them more positive feedback and encouragement, and let them feel relaxed

and be confident to express themselves.

3.5 Changing Teachers’ Role and Beliefs.

Many teachers in Algeria believe that the role of a teacher is to give students

lectures, to assign them tasks, and to evaluate their performance. This traditional teacher-

student relationship is actually an unequal teacher-centered relationship, which may hinder

the development of students’ language proficiency. The results of this study have shown

that the teacher is far from a lecturer, commander, and evaluator, and that these beliefs

must disappear to adopt new beliefs and roles.

Here are some listed suggestions for teachers to follow in order to alleviate

students’ anxiety:

123
 Université Sétif2

x English teachers should acknowledge anxiety feelings as legitimate and attempt to

lessen students’ feelings of inadequacy, confusion and failure by providing positive

experiences and feedback to counteract anxiety.

x Teachers should build student confidence and self- esteem in their English language

ability via encouragement, re-assurance, positive reinforcement and empathy.

x Teachers should correct students' errors made in English classrooms as wisely as

possible since unwise correction of teachers makes learners anxious and frightened.

x To reduce students' classroom anxiety problems, teachers should remind students

not to feel worry about their mistakes because it is through making errors that one

can improve his/her language proficiency.

x Teachers should openly discuss foreign language classroom anxiety with students

and encourage them to seek help when they need.

x Teachers should also remember to avoid assuming that students who have high

levels of achievement are not experiencing anxieties in English classes

x Students should also be given information about how to direct their attention away

from self- centered worries when they are reading, listening, speaking and taking

tests in English language.

x Teachers should create positive environment in the classroom and exam halls not to

disturb sensitive students.

x Teachers should try to provide a friendly atmosphere in the class.

x Teachers should avoid negative evaluation of students in classroom and comment

on students’ behaviors with more encouragement.

124
 Université Sétif2

x English teachers, together with the university, should take some measures to relax

students’ attention on exams, such as eliminating the ranking students by their test

scores.

Recommendations on the basis of the finding of this study are not exhaustive and

every language teacher can offer different ways of reducing language anxiety based upon

his/her personal observation of the phenomenon. This study offers a number of strategies to

cope with the potentially pervasive and detrimental effect of language anxiety. It is posited

that an apt utilization of these strategies by language teachers can help reduce

second/foreign language anxiety and can potentially increase students’ confidence to learn

and particularly to speak the target language. (For further recommendations,

(see Horwitz and Young, 1991 and Young, 1999). Thus, during this process, the role of

language teachers is deemed highly crucial and their particular beliefs, perceptions and

attitudes towards language learning and teaching process have the potential of both causing

and reducing language anxiety in the learners.

4. Limitations of the Study and Future Perspectives

The study has been carried out at 20 August 1955 Skikda’s university and has been

restricted to only 2nd year students of English language. In view of the limitations of the

study, several suggestions for future research are recommended. First, future investigations

need a larger sample size and different universities than that used in this study. This will

provide a more detailed elaboration of anxiety on the EFL subjects. Second, in order to

further expand our understanding of FL anxiety in education, it is necessary to deeply

explore the effects of anxiety on the four specific language skills: reading, speaking,

writing, and listening.

125
 Université Sétif2

Although a remarkable achievement has been gained in the research on FL anxiety,

limited progress has been made in developing measuring instruments of FL anxiety.

Therefore, further study should focus on improving and standardizing the existing FL

anxiety scales, and develop new instruments to measure different kinds of skill-specific FL

anxiety. Considering the constraints like limited time period, it was considered most

appropriate and beneficial to carry-out semi-structured and focus-group interviews in order

to reach the core of the matter rather than administrating questionnaires. Furthermore,

written questions are somewhat rigid in nature and the complete lack of personal contact

prohibits verifications of views and reactions. In addition, during the learning process, the

role of language teachers is deemed highly crucial and their particular beliefs, perceptions

and attitudes towards language learning and teaching have the potential of both causing and

reducing language anxiety in the learners. Future researchers should attempt to explore

teachers’ beliefs and perceptions about language learning and teaching, in addition to those

of learners, as a mean to effectively address the multi-dimensional construct of language

anxiety. Finally, language anxiety is a complex issue which needs to be studied further

through a longitudinal and latitudinal observation. So experiment can be employed to make

a long-time observation of language anxiety and explore more efficient approaches to

conquer it.

Conclusion

It has been posited that anxiety is one of the most negatively influential affective

variables, which prevents learners from successfully learning a foreign language. It makes

language learners nervous and afraid, which automatically contribute to poor academic

achievement. Hence, to gain a holistic understanding of the phenomenon, a combination of

different instruments has been used to explore as much facets as possible. Each instrument

126
 Université Sétif2

has been used for a specific purpose. So, in order to attain the objectives formulated in the

research proposal, collected data were analyzed through descriptive statistics by making

use of mean, standard deviations, t-tests for independent samples and correlation

coefficients. Results of the data were presented in tables/and figures followed by

discussion. The chapter has mainly discussed four issues. First of all, analysis of results

drawn from FLCAS were presented comprising language anxiety levels among the

subjects, different categories of language anxiety and FLCAS items that gained subjects’

agreement. Secondly, answers to research questions were given as the hypothesis was

confirmed. Then, some pedagogical implications and recommendations were yielded to

alleviate the pervasive effect of language anxiety on our learners. Finally, limitations of the

present study such as small sample size in addition to what we expect from future research

were discussed. Generally speaking, research findings in the current study confirm previous

research results and the multi-dimensional nature of language anxiety construct as well.

127
 Université Sétif2

General Conclusion

Some people come across with many difficulties when learning a second/foreign

language. It is believed that there are some emotional factors in foreign language learning

which affect our learning abilities. These are mainly thought to be intelligence, motivation,

attitudes and anxiety. Among these, anxiety stands out as one of the most influential factors

for effective language learning and achievement.

Although the existing research has provided a valuable insight into language anxiety

from both statistical and descriptive aspects, the phenomenon, because of its complicated

and multi-faceted nature, requires further exploration from a variety of perspectives and

approaches. This study was an attempt to apprehend the true nature of the phenomenon

from a different perspective associating personal and instructional variables at the same

time.

Anxiety, simply speaking, is a kind of troubled feeling in the mind. It has been

defined as “the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness and worry

associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system” (Speilberger, 1983; p.15). It

has also been called as an emotional response to “a threat to some value that the individual

holds essential to his existence as a personality” (May, 1977. p.205). Usually anxiety is

classified into trait anxiety, state anxiety and situation-specific anxiety. Trait anxiety, as

Scovel (1978) noted, refers to “a more permanent predisposition to be anxious” while

state and situation-specific anxiety are usually experienced in relation to some particular

event or situation (Brown, 2001). Language anxiety, the research target of this dissertation,

belongs to the last category, which refers to the apprehension experienced when a situation

requires the use of a second language with which the individual is not fully proficient (

Gardner & MacIntyre, 1993). To study anxiety in L2/FL domain, there have been mainly

two approaches: the anxiety transfer and the unique anxiety, which are reflective of

128
 Université Sétif2

different and even ambiguous conceptualizations of L2/FL related anxiety. Horwitz et

al.(1986) draw parallels between L2/FL- related anxiety and three related performance

anxieties: (1) communication apprehension, (2) test anxiety, and (3) fear of negative

evaluation, and suggest a three-part model, with these components as conceptual “building

blocks” of the anxiety construct they called foreign language anxiety.

With the shifting of research focus from teachers to learners in SLA, affective

factors were thought to account a lot for language learning outcomes. In an educational

setting, anxiety is a prominent factor that plays a decisive role in the learning process

accuracy. Regarding the complex and multi-faceted nature of the construct, thereby, it can

not be fully studied in isolation from other learners’ affective and situational variables.

Consequently, correlates associated with learners’ variables such as self-esteem, beliefs,

language proficiency, language strategies, social anxiety, motivation, personality and

gender were presented in the first place, and then correlates associated with situational

factors as instructors’ beliefs about teaching, classroom procedure including in-class

activities, teaching methods, in addition to competitive environment and test-taking

situation were introduced in the second place.

Learning a L2/FL is a complex process and the cognitive effect of anxiety is

evaluated in three stages: input, processing and output. The role of anxiety at the input

stage is like the role of a filter, which prevents the information from getting into the

cognitive processing system. The effect of anxiety in the processing stage is that it

distracts’ students’ attention and consequently influences both the speed and accuracy of

learning. During the output stage, anxiety can influence the quality of speaking and writing

in the target language. Although, the latter two skills impair could be easily detected since

they are outcomes, other skills such as listening and reading in addition to vocabulary

129
 Université Sétif2

acquisition and grammar deficiencies are difficult to identify even though, it has been

proved that all learning skills could be severely affected by language anxiety.

The pervasive effects of language anxiety on learning and achievement have widely

been acknowledged; consequently, how it is manifested in learners on the- psychological,

physical and social levels in addition to the clues to detect it- are considered as paramount

for teachers to find adequate techniques to reduce or at least successfully cope with anxiety.

To fulfil such a goal, students must learn some strategies to alleviate their internal anxiety

and teachers must create a supportive and healthy learning environment by introducing any

new technological devices or approach that can facilitate teaching and alley anxiety at the

same time.

To conduct the research, six instruments were used including: Background

Questionnaire, The Questionnaire of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale

(FLCAS), Self-perceived Proficiency Scale, Motivation Scale, Anxiety towards In-Class

Activity Questionnaire, and Anxiety towards Test Types Evaluation questionnaire. Since

our investigation is about language anxiety, The FLCAS has been chosen as a tool because

it is considered to be a standard instrument for testing an individual’s response to the

specific stimulus of language learning (Horwitz and Young, 1991). The FLCAS is a self-

report measure which assesses the student’s degree of anxiety as measured by negative

performance expectancies and social comparisons, psycho-physiological symptoms and

avoidance behaviors. The items in the FLCAS were developed from student self-reports,

clinical experience and a review of related instruments and are reflective of communication

apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation. The FLCAS identifies students

who experience debilitating anxiety in the language classroom so that appropriate

classroom and individual interventions may be offered. Research results suggest that

130
 Université Sétif2

foreign language anxiety can be reliably and validly measured by means of the FLCAS

(Horwitz and Young, 1991).

To analyse data, multiple research methods were used such as descriptive

analysis, correlation analysis, independent-samples t-test analysis, and analysis of variance

(ANOVA). Statistical analysis of the data has yielded the following findings: First, the

results revealed that there existed different levels of FL anxiety among 2nd year English

language students at 20 August 1955 Skikda’s University, Algeria. Twenty-seven percent

of the subjects showed high-level FL anxiety; 59% showed medium-level FL anxiety; and

14% showed low-level FL anxiety. Among the four categories of Foreign Language

Classroom Anxiety Scale, the most anxiety that the subjects experienced was

communication apprehension followed by test anxiety. What seems to distinguish speaking

is the public nature of the skill; this poses a threat to people’s self-concept, self-identity and

ego, which they have formed in their first language as reasonable and intelligent individuals

(Horwitz et al, 1986). Every factor or situation that creates possibilities or enhances the

chances of exposing their deficiencies and language imperfections in front of others like

open class forum, group participation, or presenting a work orally is likely to cause

language anxiety for the learners. Second, six personal sources (i.e., personality type,

communicative competence, English achievement, motivation, self-perceived proficiency

in English, and the amount of time spent in studying English after class) were found

statistically to have significant correlation with students’ FL anxiety levels, but three

variables (i.e., gender, baccalaureate stream, and residential region) showed no significant

correlation with FL anxiety. Third, this study indicated that classroom activities, teachers’

behaviors and characteristics, and the types of tests were the main sources arousing

students’ FL anxiety. Speaking-oriented activities provoked most FL anxiety, whereas

cooperative activities caused less FL anxiety.

131
 Université Sétif2

What makes a foreign language classroom a highly anxiety-provoking place is its

evaluative nature: evaluation by the teacher, peers, and by learners’ own ‘self’,

accompanied by high expectations and beliefs about language learning. It was found that

the feelings of anxiety become more threatening when the language instructors’ manner of

error correction is rigid and humiliating and when they consider that it is up to the teacher

to make them succeed or fail. Meanwhile, instructors’ behaviors and characteristics that

greatly lighten students’ foreign language anxiety were the followings: being patient and

friendly, having a sense of humor, understanding students, complimenting and encouraging

students.

As far as tests and exams are concerned, oral test with assessors grading was viewed

as the most anxiety-producing evaluation. Although, listening activities are generally

considered not to be anxiety-provoking, listening comprehension test ranks second,

whereas, time constraints might be one of the sources arousing students’ test anxiety.

Finally, several pedagogical strategies were offered to cope with language anxiety

according to the findings in this study: (1) helping students build a healthy self-perceived

proficiency in English, (2) using a wider range of measurements in evaluating students, (3)

arousing students’ motivation in English learning, (4) creating a low-anxious classroom,

and (5) changing teachers’ role and beliefs.

To conclude, the results obtained from the study indicated that foreign language

anxiety can be considered as a prominent factor that affect the achievement levels of

language learners. Language teachers should be aware of this fact and try to diminish the

level of debilitative anxiety by using different techniques offered by the researchers.

132
 Université Sétif2

References

Abu-Rabia, S. (2004). Teachers’ role, learners’ gender differences, and FL anxiety among

seventh-grade students studying English as a FL. Educational Psychology, 24 (5),

711-721.

Aida, Y. (1994). Examination of Horwirz, Horwitz, and Cope’s construct of foreign

language anxiety: the case of students of Japanese. Modern Language Journal, 78

(2), 155-168.

American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental

disorders (4th ed.), Washington DC: American Psychiatric Press.

Ariza, E. N. (1999). Reaching Joseph: how a Spanish speaking Anglo teacher helped a

monolingual English speaking Puerto Rican child learn Spanish. Reading

Improvement, 36 (3), 98-101.

Arnold, N. (2007). Reducing foreign language communication apprehension with

computer-mediated communication: A preliminary study. System, 35, 469486.

Arnold, J., & Brown, H.D. (1999). A map of the terrain. In J. Arnold (Ed.), Affect in

language learning (pp. 1-24). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bailey, P., Daley, C. E., & Onwuegbuzie, A. J., (1999). Foreign language anxiety and

learning style. Foreign Language Annals, 32 (1), 63-76.

133
 Université Sétif2

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W H. Freeman.

Bates, E., Dale,P.S., & Thal, D. (1995). Individual differences and their implications for

theories of language development. In P. Fletcher & B. MacWhinney ( Eds.), the

handbook of child language (pp. 96-151). Oxford: Blackwell.

Beauvois, M. (1998). Conversations in slow motion: Computer-mediated communication

in the foreign language classroom. Canadian Modern Language Review, 54(2),

198–217.

Bond, B. D. (1984). Silent incarceration. Contemporary Education 55, 95-101.

Brown, H. D. (1994). Principles of language learning and teaching. New York: Pearson

Education.

Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching (4th ed.). New York:

Longman.

Brown, J. D., Robson, G., & Rosenkjar, P. R. (2001). Personality, motivation, anxiety,

strategies, and language proficiency of Japanese students. In R. Schmidt (Ed.),

Motivation and second language acquisition , 361–398. Honolulu: University of

Hawaii Press.

134
 Université Sétif2

Brown, J. D., Robson, G., & Rosenkjar, P. (1996). Personality, motivation, anxiety,

strategies, and language proficiency of Japanese students. In Dornyei, Zoltan,

& Schmidt, Richard (Eds.). Motivation and second language acquisition

(pp. 361-398), Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Buss, A.H. (1980). Self-consciousness and social anxiety. San Francisco: Freeman.

Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching languages to young learners. United Kingdom: Cambridge

University Press.

Campbell, C. M. (1999). Language anxiety in men and women: Dealing with gender

differences in the language classroom. In Dolly J. Young (Ed.). Affect in foreign

language and second language learning: A practical guide to creating a low

anxiety classroom atmosphere (pp.191-215). Boston: McGraw-Hill College.

Campbell, C. M., & Ortiz, J. (1991). Helping students overcome foreign language

anxiety: A foreign language anxiety workshop. In Elaine K. Horwitz & Dolly J.

Young. Language anxiety: From theory and research to classroom implications

(pp. 153-168). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Carver, C.S., & Scheier, M.F. (1986). Functional and Dysfunctional Responses to

Anxiey: The Interaction between Expectancies and Self-focused Attention. Journal

of Research in Personality, 28, 133–141.

135
 Université Sétif2

Chan D.Y. & Wu, G.C. (2004). A Study of foreign language anxiety of EFL elementary

school students in Taipei county. Journal of National Taipei Teachers College,

17(2), 287-320.

Chastain, R. (1975). Affective and ability factors in second language acquisition.

Language Learning, 25 (1), 153 -161.

Chastain, K. (1988). Developing second language skills: Theory to practice. (3rd Ed.),

U. S. A. : Hartcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Cheng, Y.S. (2002). Factors associated with foreign language writing anxiety. Foreign

Language Annals, 35(6), 647-656.

Cheng, Y., Horwitz, E. K., & Schallert, D. (1999). Language anxiety: Differentiating

writing and speaking components. Language Learning, 49(3), 417-446.

Clément, R. (1980). Ethnicity, contact and communicative competence in a second

language. In H. Giles, W. P. Robinson & P. M. Smith (Eds.), Language: Social

psychological perspectives (pp. 147–154). Oxford: Pergamon.

Coopersmith, S. (1967). The antecedents of self-esteem. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman.

Creswell, J. (2002). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating

quantitative and qualitative research. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.

136
 Université Sétif2

Culler, R. E & Holahan, C. J. (1980). Test anxiety and academic performance: the effects

of study related behaviors. Journal of Educational Psychology, 72(1), 16-20.

Daly, J.A. (1991). Understanding communication apprehension: an introduction for

language educators. In E.K. Horwitz & D.J. Young (Eds.), Language anxiety: from

theory and research to classroom implications (pp.3-13). Englewood Cliffs, NJ:

Prentice Hall.

David W. P. (2008). Test anxiety and GCSE performance: the effect of gender and socio-

economic background. Educational Psychology in Practice, 24 (4), 319–334.

DeKeyser, R., & Larson-Hall, J. (2005). What does the Critical Period really mean? In

J. F. Kroll & A. M. D. de Groot (Eds.), Handbook of Bilingualism: Psycholinguistic

Approaches (pp. 88–108). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Desrochers, A., & Gardner, R.C. (1981). Second language acquisition: An investigation of

a bicultural excursion experience. Quebec: International Center for Research on

Bilingualism.

Dewaele, J.-M. (2002). Individual differences in L2 fluency: The effect of neurobiological

correlates. In V. Cook (Ed.), Portraits of the L2 user (pp. 221–249). Clevedon,

England: Multilingual Matters.

137
 Université Sétif2

Dewaele, J. M. (2007). The effect of multilingualism, sociobiographical, and situational

factors on communicative anxiety and foreign language anxiety of mature language

learners. International Journal of Bilingualism, 11(4), 391-409.

Dewaele, J. M.& Furnham, A. (1999). Extraversion: the unloved variable in applied

linguistic research. Language Learning, 49(3), 509-544.

Dönyei, Z. (2001). Teaching and researching motivation. London: Longman.

Dörnyei, Z. (Ed.). (2003). Attitudes, orientations, and motivations in language learning.

Oxford: Blackwell.

Dörnyei, Z. (2005). The psychology of the language learner: Individual differences in

second language acquisition.Mahwah,NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Dörnyei, Z. and Otto, I. (1998). Motivation in action: A process model of L2 motivation.

Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, 4, 43-69.

Dubreil, S. (2006). Gaining perspective on culture through CALL. In L. Ducate & N.

Arnold (Eds.), Calling on CALL: From theory and research to new directions in

foreign language teaching. (pp. 237-268). San Marcos, TX: CALICO Publications.

Ehrman, M. E., & Oxford, R. L. (1995). Cognition plus: Correlates of language learning

success. Modern Language Journal, 79(1), 67–89.

138
 Université Sétif2

Elkhafaifi, H. (2005). Listening comprehension and anxiety in the Arabic language

classroom. The modern language journal, 89(2), 206-220.

Ellis, R. (1994). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University

Press.

Ely, C. M. (1986). An analysis of discomfort, risk taking, sociability, and motivation in the

L2 classroom. Language Learning, 36, 1–25.

Ganshow, L., Javorsky, J., Sparks, R. L., Skinner, Sue, Anderson, Reed, & Patton, Jon.

(1994). Differences in language performance among high-, average-, and low-

anxious college foreign language learners. The Modern Language Journal, 78 (1),

41-55.

Fotos, S., & Browne, C. (2004). New perspectives on CALL for second language

classrooms. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Foss, K.A. Reitzel, A.C. (1988). A relational model for managing second language

anxiety’. TESOL Quarterly, 22(3), 437-454.

Freiermuth, M. R. (1998). Using a chat program to promote group equity. CAELL

Journal, 8 (2), 16-24.

139
 Université Sétif2

Friedman, P.G. (1980). Shyness and reticence in students. Washington, D.C.: National

Education Association.

Gardner, R. C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of

attitudes and motivation. London: Edward Arnold.

Gardner, R. C. (2001). Integrative motivation and second language acquisition. In Z.

Dörnyei & R. Schmidt (Eds.), Motivation and second language acquisition,

(pp.1–20). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Gardner, R. C. (2008), Individual differences in second and foreign language learning. In

N.H. Hornberger. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Language and Education

(2nd ed., pp. 33-35). Western Ontario, London: Springer US.

Gardner, R. C., & MacIntyre, P. (1992). A student's contributions to second language

learning. Part I: Cognitive variables. Language Teaching, 25, 211-220.

Gardner, R. C., & MacIntyre, P. D. (1993). A student’s contributions to second-language

learning. Part II: Affective variables. Language Teaching, 26, 1–11.

Gardner, R.C., Smythe, P. C., & Brunet, G. R. (1977). Intensive second language study:

Effects on attitudes, motivation and French achievement. Language Learning,

27 (2), 243-261.

140
 Université Sétif2

Gardner, R. C., Moorcroft, R., & MacIntyre, P. D. (1987). The role of anxiety in second

language performance of language dropouts. Ontario: The University of Western

Ontario.

Gardner, R. C., Tremblay, P. F., & Masgoret, A.-M. (1997). Towards a full model of

second language learning: An empirical investigation. Modern Language Journal,

81, 344–362.

Goldberg, L. R. (1993). The structure of phenotypic personality traits. American

Psychologist, 48, 26–34.

Gregersen, T. (2003). To err is human: A reminder to teachers of language-anxious

students. Foreign Language Annals, 36, 25 – 32.

Gregersen, T., & Horwitz, E. K. (2002). Language learning and perfectionism: Anxious

and non-anxious language learners’ reactions to their own oral performance.

Modern Language Journal, 86(4), 562–570.

Hanson-Smith, E. (2001). Computer-assisted language learning. In R. Carter & D. Nunan

(Eds.), The Cambridge guide to teaching English to speakers of other languages,

(pp. 107–113). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Hembree, R. (1988). Correlates, causes, effects, and treatment of test anxiety. Review of

Educational Research, 58, 47-77.

141
 Université Sétif2

Horwitz, E. K. (1990). Attending to the affective domain in the foreign language

classroom. In: S.S Magnan(Ed.), Shifting the instructional focus of the learner,

(pp. 15-33). Middlebury,VT: Northeast conference on the teaching of foreign

languages.

Horwitz, E. K. (1999). Cultural and situational influences on foreign language learners’

beliefs about language learning: A review of BALLI studies. System,

27(4), 557–576.

Horwitz, E. K. (2000). It ain’t over till it’s over: On foreign language anxiety, first

language deficits, and the confounding of variables. Modern Language Journal,

84(2), 256–259.

Horwitz, E. K. (2001). Language anxiety and achievement. Annual Review of Applied

Linguistics, 21, 112–126.

Horwitz, E.K., Horwitz, M.B., & Cope, J.A. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety,

The Modern Language Journal, 70 (2), 125-132.

Horwitz, E.K. & Young, D.J. (Eds.). (1991). Language anxiety: from theory and research

to classroom implications. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Jackson, J. (2002). Reticence in second language case discussions: Anxiety and

aspirations. System, 30 (1), 65-84.

142
 Université Sétif2

Janassen, D.H., & grabowski, B.L. (1993). Handbook of individual difference, learning

and instruction. New Jersey: Lawrence Eribaum Associates, Publishers.

Jones, B. & Frydenberg, E. (2004). Anxiety in childhood: How do children cope? In

E.Frydenberg (Ed.). Thriving surviving or going under: Coping with everyday

lives.( pp. 109-133).

Kern, R.G. (1995). Students' and teachers' beliefs about language learning. Foreign

Language Annals, 28, 71-92.

Kitano, K. (2001). Anxiety in the college Japanese language classroom. The Modern

Language Journal, 85(4), 549-566.

Kim, J-H. (2000). Foreign language listening anxiety: A study of Korean students
learning

English. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Texas, Austin.

Kleinmann, H. H. (1977). Avoidance behavior in adult second-language acquisition.

Language Learning, 27, 93-107.

Koch, A., & Terrel. (1991). Affective reactions of foreign language students to natural

approach actives and teaching techniques. In E. K. Horwitz & D. Young (Eds.),

Language anxiety: From theory and research to classroom implications.

(pp. 109-126). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Kondo, D. S., & Yong, Y. Y. (2004). Strategies for coping with language anxiety: The case

of students of English in Japan. ELT Journal, 58(3), 258-265.

143
 Université Sétif2

Krashen, S.D. (1982). Principles and practice in second language learning. New York:

Pergamon.

Krashen, S. D. (1985). The input hypothesis: Issues and implications, London: Longman.

Leary, M. (1983). Understanding social anxiety: Social personality and clinical

perspectives. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.

Leedy, P. & Ormrod, J. (2001). Practical research: Planning and design (7th Ed.). Upper

Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.

Levitt, E. E. (1980). The psychology of anxiety. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum

Associates.

Lightbown, P. M., & Spada, N. (2006). How languages are learned. Third Edition, Oxford

University Press.

MacIntyre, P. D. (1995a). How does anxiety affect second language learning? A reply to

Sparks and Ganschow. Modern Language Journal, 79, 90–99.

MacIntyre, P. D. (1995b). On seeing the forest and the trees: A rejoinder to Sparks and

Ganschow. Modern Language Journal, 79, 245–248.

144
 Université Sétif2

MacIntyre, P. D. (1999). Language anxiety: A review of the research for language

teachers. In D. J. Young (Ed.), Affect in foreign language and second language

learning, (pp.24–45). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

MacIntyre,P.D. (2002). Motivation, anxiety and emotion in second language acquisition. In

P. Robinson(Ed.), Individual differences in second language acquisition,

(pp. 45- 68). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. (1989). Anxiety and second language learning: Toward

a theoretical clarification. Language Learning, 32, 251-275.

MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. (1991a). Language anxiety: Its relation to other

anxieties and to processing in native and second languages. Language Learning,

41, 513–534.

MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. (1991b). Methods and results in the study of anxiety in

language learning: A review of the literature. Language Learning, 41, 85–117.

MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. (1994). The subtle effects of language anxiety on

cognitive processing in the second language. Language Learning, 44, 283-305.

MacIntyre, P. D., Baker, S. C., Clément, R., & Donovan, L. A. (2003). Talking in order to

learn: Willingness to communicate and intensive language programs. Canadian

Modern Language Review, 59(4), 589–607.

145
 Université Sétif2

MacIntyre, P. D., Noels, K. A., & Clément, R. (1997). Biases in self-ratings of second

language proficiency: The role of language anxiety. Language Learning,

47(2), 265–287.

May, R. (1977). The meaning of anxiety. New York: W.W.Norton.

McCroskey, J.C. (1977). Oral communication apprehension: A summary of recent theory

and research. Human Communication Research, 4(1), 78-96.

McCroskey, J. C. (1984). The communication apprehension perspective. In J. A. Daly & J.

C. McCroskey (Eds.), Avoiding communication : Shyness, reticence, and

communication apprehension , 13-38. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Mckeating, D. (1981). The teaching of English as an international language a practice

guide. Edinburgh: Collins ELT.

Meunier, L. E. (1998). Personality and motivational factors in computer-mediated foreign

language communication (CMFLC). In J.A. Muyskens (Ed.), New ways of learning

and teaching: Focus on technology and foreign language education, (pp. 145-197).

Boston: Heinle & Heinle.

146
 Université Sétif2

Meskill, C., & Ranglova, K. (2000). Sociocollaborative language learning in Bulgaria. In

M. Warschauer & R. Kern (Eds.), Network-based language teaching: Concepts and

practice (pp. 20–40). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Mills, N., Pajares, F., & Herron, C. (2006). A reevaluation of the role of anxiety: Self-

efficacy, anxiety, and their relation to reading and listening proficiency. Foreign

Language Annals, 39, 276-295.

Mills, N., Pajares, F., & Herron, C. (2007). Self-efficacy of college intermediate French

students: Relation to achievement and motivation. Language Learning,

57(3), 417-442.

Mueller, B. (1981). Test anxiety: Deficit in information processing. Journal of Educational

Psychology, 73(6), 816-824.

Needham H. (2002, December). The Use of Alternative Assessment Strategies in

Secondary Spanish. Paper presented at Annual Research Forum of Wake Forest

University, Winston-Salem, NC.

Nugent, S. (2000). Foreign language instruction in a global community. NASSP Bulletin,

84 (612), 35-40.

Nunan, D. & Lamb, C. (1996). The Self-Directed Teacher. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

147
 Université Sétif2

Oh, J. (1992). The Effects of L2 reading assessment methods on anxiety level.

TESOL Quarterly, 26 (1), 172-76.

Ohata, K. (2005). Language anxiety from the teacher’s perspective: Interviews with seven

experienced ESL/EFL teachers. Journal of Language and Learning, 3(1), 133-155.

Onwuegbuzie, A,J., Bailey, P., & Daley,C,E. (1999). Factors associated with foreign

language anxiety. Applied Psycholinguistics, 20(2), 217-239.

Onwuegbuzie, A. J. & Daley, C. E. (1996). The relative contributions of examination-

taking coping strategies and study coping strategies on test anxiety: A concurrent

analysis. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 20, 287–303.

Onwuegbuzie, A. J., Slate, J., Paterson, F., Watson, M. & Schwartz, R. (2000). Factors

associated with underachievement in educational research courses, Research in the

Schools, 7, 53–65.

Oxford, R. L. (1992). Language learning styles. Research and practical considerations for

teaching in the multicultural tertiary ESL/FL classroom. System, 20, 439-456.

Oxford, R. L. (1994). Language learning strategies: An update. The Modem Language

Journal, 76 (1), 14-26.

Oxford, R. L. (1999a). Anxiety and the language learner: New insights. In J. Arnold (Ed.),

Affect in language learning (pp. 58–67). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

148
 Université Sétif2

Oxford, R. L. (1999b). Learning strategies. In B. Spolsky (Ed.), concise encyclopaedia of

educational linguistics (pp. 518–522). Oxford: Elsevier.

Phillips, E. M. (1992). The effects of language anxiety on student oral test performance

and attitudes. Modern Language Journal, 76, 14-26.

Price, M.L. (1991). The subjective experience of foreign language anxiety: interviews wit

highly anxious students. In E.K. Horwitz, & D.J. Young (Eds.), Language anxiety:

From theory and research to classroom implications. (pp. 101-108). Englewood

Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Powell, J. C. (1991). Foreign language anxiety: Institutional responses. In E.K. Horwitz

& D. J. Young (Eds.). Language anxiety: From theory and research to classroom

implications. (pp. 169-176). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Powell, J. and L. Andersen. (1985). Humor and teaching in higher education. Studies in

Higher Education 10 (1), 79-90.

Richards, J. C., Platt, J., & Platt, H. (1992). Dictionary of language teaching & applied

linguistics. Singapore: Longman Group UK limited.

Richmond, V. P., & McCroskey, J. C. (1989). Communication: Apprehension, avoidance,

and effectiveness (2nd Eds.). Scottsdale, AZ: Gorsuch Scarisbrick, Publishers.

149
 Université Sétif2

Saito,Y., Horwitz, E. K., & Garza,T. J.(1999).Foreign language reading anxiety. The

Modern Language Journal, 83, 125-132.

Rodriguez, M. and Abreu,O. (2003). The stability of general foreign language classroom

anxiety across English and French’. The Modern Language Journal,

87(3), 365- 374.

Saito, Y., & Samimy, K. K. (1996). Foreign language anxiety and language performance:

A study of learner anxiety in beginning, intermediate, and advanced-level college

students of Japanese. Foreign Language Annals, 29(2), 239-250.

Samimy, K. K. (1989). A comparative study of teaching Japanese in the audio-lingual

method and the counselling-learning approach. The Modern Language Journal,

73 (2), 169-177.

Samimy, K.K. (1994) Teaching Japanese: Considerations of learners’ affective variables,

Theory into Practice, 33 (1), 29- 33.

Sandberg, K.E. (1995). Affective and cognitive features of collaborative learning. In Gene

Kierstons (Ed.), Review of Research and Developmental Education, 6(4). Boone,

NC: Appalachian State University.

150
 Université Sétif2

Sarason, I. G. (1980). Test anxiety: Theory, research, and applications. Hillsdale, NJ:

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Schlenker, B. R., & Leary, M .R. (1982). Social anxiety and self-presentation:

A conceptualization and model. Psychological Bulletin, 92, 641-669.

Sellers, V. D. (2000). Anxiety and reading comprehension in Spanish as a foreign

language. Foreign Language Annals, 33 (5), 512-21.

Schacht, S. & Stewart, B. J. (1990). What’s funny about statistics? A technique for

reducing student anxiety. Teaching Sociology, 18(1), 52-56.

Shore, C.M. (1995). Individual differences in language development. Thousand Oaks,CA:

sage.

Scovel, T. (1978) the effect of affect on foreign language learning: A Review of the

anxiety research. Language learning, 28(1), 129-142.

Scovel, T. (2001). Learning new languages: A guide to second language acquisition.

Boston: Heinle and Heinle.

151
 Université Sétif2

Sparks, R. L. (1995). Examining the Linguistic Coding Differences Hypothesis to explain

individual differences in foreign language learning. Annals of Dyslexia,

45, 187–214.

Sparks, R. L., & Ganschow, L. (1991). Foreign language learning differences: Affective or

native language aptitude differences? Modern Language Journal, 75, 3–16.

Sparks, R. L., & Ganschow, L. (1999). Native language skills, foreign language aptitude

and anxiety about foreign language learning. In D. J. Young (Ed.), Affect in foreign

language and second language learning (pp. 169–190). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Sparks, R. L., & Ganschow, L. (2001). Aptitude for learning a foreign language. Annual

Review of Applied Linguistics, 21, 90–111.

Sparks, R. L., & Ganschow, L. (2007). Is the foreign language classroom anxiety scale

measuring anxiety or language skills? Foreign Language Annals, 40, 260–287.

Sparks, R. L., Ganschow, L., & Patton, J. (1995). Prediction of performance in first-year

foreign language courses: Connections between native and foreign language

learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 87, 638–655.

152
 Université Sétif2

Sparks, R. L., Artzer, M., Ganschow, L., Siebenhar, D., Plageman, M., & Patton, J. (1998).

Differences in native-language skills, foreign-language aptitude and foreign-

language grades among high-, average- and low-proficiency foreign-language

learners: Two studies. Language Testing, 15(2), 181–216.

Sparks, R. L., Ganschow, L., & Javorsky, J. (2000). Déjà vu all over again: A response to

Saito, Horwitz, and Garza. Modern Language Journal, 84, 251–259.

Spielberger, C. D. (1983). Manual for the state-trait anxiety inventory. CA: Consulting

Psychologist Press.

Spielmann, G., & Radnofsky, M. L. (2001). Learning language under tension: New

directions from a qualitative study. The Modern Language Journal,

85 (2), 259-278.

Spolsky, B. (1989). Conditions for second language learning. Oxford: Oxford University

Press.

Stokes, G. & Whiteside, D. (1984). One brain: Dyslexic learning correction and brain

integration. Burbank: Three-In One Concepts.

Sproull, L., & Kiesler, S. (1991). Connections: New ways of working in the networked

organization. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

153
 Université Sétif2

Swain, M., & Burnaby, B. (1976). Personality characteristics and second language learning

in young children: A pilot study. Working Papers on Bilingualism, 11, 116–128.

Tobias, S. (1977). A model for research on the effect of anxiety on instruction. In J.E.

Sieber, H.F. O'Neil, Jr, & S. Tobias, Anxiety, learning and instruction. Hillsdale,

N.J.: Erlbaum.

VanPatten,B. & Glass, W.R. (1999). Grammar learning as a source of language anxiety: A

discussion. In D.J. Young (Ed.). Affect in foreign language and second language

learning, (pp.89-105). New York: McGraw Hill.

Vogely, A. J. (1998). Listening comprehension anxiety: Students’ reported sources and

solutions. Foreign Language Annals, 31(1), 67-80.

Vogt, W. P. (1999). Dictionary of statistics and methodology: A nontechnical guide.

Newbury Park: SAGE Publications.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological

processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Warr, P., & Downing, J. (2000). Learning strategies, learning anxiety and knowledge

acquisition. British. Journal of Psychology. 91(3), 311-333.

154
 Université Sétif2

Warschauer, M. (1996). Comparing face-to-face and electronic discussion in the second

language classroom. CALICO Journal, 13 (2), 7-26.

Williams, K. (2008). Is“ Facilitative Anxiety” All in your head? Sophia Junior College

Journal, 28, 1-7.

Wright, D. (2003). Asynchronous negotiations: Introducing electronic portfolios to

promote professional development in foreign-language business classrooms. Global

Business Languages, 8, 88-107.

Yan, X. J. & Horwitz, E. K. (2008). Learners’ perceptions of how anxiety interacts with

personal and instructional factors to influence their achievement in English: A

qualitative analysis of EFL Learners in China. Language Learning, 58(1), 151-183.

Young, D.J. (1986). The relationship between anxiety and foreign language oral

proficiency ratings. Foreign Language Annals, 19, 439-445.

Young, D. J. (1990). An investigation of students’ perspectives on anxiety and speaking.

Foreign Language Annals, 23 (6), 539-553.

Young, D. J. (1991). Creating a low-anxiety classroom environment: What does language

anxiety suggest? The Modern Language Journal, 75,426-439.

Young, D. J. (1999). Affect in foreign language and second language learning: A practical

guide to creating a low-anxiety classroom atmosphere. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill

College.

155
 Université Sétif2

Electronic References

Bold, M. (2001). Research methodology. Journal of Business & Economic Research –

March 2007. Retrieved April 9, 2010, from

http://www.unt.edu/cpe/module3blk2survey2.htm.

Chen, Y. H. (2002). The relationship between anxiety and English proficiency of EFL

learners in Taiwan. Unpublished master‘s thesis, National Kaohsiung First

University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung Taiwan. Retrived may 22, 2010

from http://ir.lib.isu.edu.tw/handle/987654321/11417

Chen, H. J. (2006). Foreign language anxiety: A study of bilingual elementary school

students, (Master Thesis, Chaoyang University of Technology, 2006). Retrieved

July 4, 2010 from http: //ethesys.lib.cyut.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-

search/view_etd?URN=etd-0620107-103007

Casado, M.A., and Dereshiwsky, M. (2001). Foreign language anxiety of university

students. College Student Journal. Retrieved May 15, 2010, from

http://www.findarticles.com/p

Chu, H. (2008). Shyness and EFL learning in Taiwan: A study of shy and non-shy college

students’ use of strategies, foreign language anxiety, motivation, and willingness to

communicate. (Doctoral dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin, 2008).

Retrieved February 16, 2010 from

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/etd/d/2008/chuh41126/chuh41126.pdf

156
 Université Sétif2

Godwin-Jones, R. (2003). Emerging technologies: Blogs and Wikis: Environments for on-

line collaboration. Language Learning & Technology, 7(2), 12–16. Retrieved

March, 14, 2010, from http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/emerging/default.html

González-Bueno, M. (1998). The effects of electronic mail on Spanish L2 discourse.

Language Learning & Technology, 1(2), 55–70. Retrieved March 14, 2010, from

http://llt.msu.edu/vol1num2/article3/ default.html

Gregersen, T. (2007). Breaking the code of silence: A study of teachers’ nonverbal

decoding accuracy of foreign language anxiety.

Language Teaching Research, 11, 209 – 221. Retrieved December 25, 2010,

from http://www.teslcanadajournal.ca/index.php/tesl/article/viewFile/414/244

Haskin, J., Smith, M. L. H., & Racine, M. (2003). Decreasing anxiety and frustration in the

Spanish language classroom. Master‘s thesis, Saint Xavier University. Retrieved

April 26, 2010, from http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed84715.html

Holbrook, H. T. (1987). Communication Apprehension: The quiet student in your

classroom. Urbana, IL: ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication

Skills. Retrieved April 26, 2010, from

http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed284315.html

157
 Université Sétif2

Kim, S. (2005). Exploring willingness to communicate (WTC) in English among Korean

EFL (English as a foreign language) students in Korea: WTC as a predictor of

success in secondlanguage acquisition. Retrieved April 5, 2010, from

http://gradworks.umi.com/31/60/3160755.html

Kristen, K. L. (2002, December). The self efficacy of students in high poverty schools.

Paper presented at Annual Research Forum of Wake Forest University,

Winston-Salem, NC. Retrieved March15, 2010, from

http://de.scientificcommons.org/30977155

Laine, E.J. (1987). Affective Factors in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching: A study

of the “Filter”, Jyvaskyla Cross-Language Studies. Retrived March15, 2010. from

http://mek.niif.hu/04900/04902/04902.pdf

Lessard-Clouston, M. (1997). Language learning strategies: An overview for L2 teachers.

The Internet TESL Journal. Retrieved March 5, 2010, from http://iteslj

.org/Articles/Lessard-Clouston-Strategy.html.

Pappamihiel, N.E. (2001). Moving from the ESL classroom into the mainstream: An

investigation of English language anxiety in Mexican girls’. Bilingual Research

Journal, 25, No. 1 and 2. Retrieved April 30, 2010, from

http://brj.asu.edu/v2512/pdf/ar3.pdf

158
 Université Sétif2

Shams, A. (2006). The use of Computerized Pronunciation Practice in the Reduction of

Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. The Florida

State University. Retrieved March 3, 2010, from

http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-11092006-171538/

Von Worde, V. (2003). Student’s perspective on foreign language anxiety. Virginia

Community College. Retrived June 22, 2010, from

http://www.vccaedu.org/inquiry/inquiry-spring2003/1-81-worde.htm.

Wilson, J.T.S. (2006). Anxiety in learning English as a foreign language: Its association

with student variables, with overall proficiency, and with performance on oral test.

(Doctoral thesis .Retrieved February 19, 2010, from

http://digibug.ugr.es/bitstream/10481/1074/1/16235290.pdf

Zhang, C. (2006). The research on the role orientation of high school English teacher under

the new English curriculum criterion. Unpublished master’s thesis, Jiangxi Normal

University, Nanchang, China. Retrieved February 18, 2010, from

http://de.scientificcommons.org/30761152#search_string=Zhang%2C%20C.%20(2

006).%20language%20teaching%20

Zhao, N. (2007). A study of high school students’ English learning anxiety. Asian EFL On-

Line Journal, 9(3), 22-34. Retrieved May 3, 2010, from

http://asian-efljournal.com/September_2007_EBook_editions.pdf#page=22

159
 Université Sétif2

Zuriff, G., E. (1999). Accommodations for test anxiety under the ADA?. The Bar

Examiner, 68(1), 15-24. Retrieved October 17, 2010, from

http://www.ncbex.org/uploads/user_docrepos/680199_Zuriff.pdf

160
 Université Sétif2

Appendix A
Background Questionnaire

Skikda University
Faculty of Letters and Languages
Department of English Language

Questionnaires to be completed by Students

Dear Student,
Currently, I am conducting a postgraduate (magistére) research in TEFL under the title: ‘The
Impact of Foreign language Anxiety on Academic Achievement.’ The objective of these
questionnaires is to gather information and to examine the degree of English learning classroom
Anxiety you may experience.

Please read each statement of each appendix below very carefully and indicate your true feelings
in English classroom. Since the success of the study highly depends on your honesty in rating
these items, you are kindly requested to respond accordingly.
Your co-operation will be greatly appreciated!
Thank you in advance

Instruction: Choose the appropriate information

1. Gender: __________

1) Male 2) Female

2. Baccalaureate stream: ___________

1) Literary Stream 2) Scientific Stream

3. Where are you from? ________

1) Urban area 2) Rural area

4. How many years have you learned English? _______

1) Four years 2) Five years 3) Six years 4) Seven years 5) More than seven years
 Université Sétif2

5. How many hours do you study English outside of class per week? ________

1) None or less than 1 hour. 2) 1-2 hours. 3) 2-3 hours. 4) 3-4 hours.

5) More than 4 hours.

6. Your English achievement is _______

1) Excellent 2) Good 3) Average 4) Unsatisfactory 5) Poor

7. What do you think of your interpersonal communicative competence? (Your interaction

with peers) _______

1) Excellent 2) Good 3) Average 4) Unsatisfactory 5) Poor

8. Your personality type is_______

1) extrovert or lean towards extrovert. (Extraverts tend to be more naturally active, expressive,
social, and interested in many things).

2) between introversive and extroversive.

3) introvert or lean towards introvert. (Introverts tend to be more reserved, private, cautious,
and interested in fewer interactions, but with greater depth and focus).
 Université Sétif2

Appendix B

Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS)

Instruction:

The following items are helpful to indicate the anxiety level students have in the English class.
Select and circle the item that best describes your reaction.
N.B. To answer each item use the following ranking key.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

1 2 3 4 5

1. I never feel quite sure of myself when I am speaking in my English class.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

2. I don’t worry about making mistakes in English class.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

3. I tremble when I know that I’m going to be called on to speak in English class.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

4. It frightens me when I don’t understand what the teacher is saying in the English language.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

5. It wouldn’t bother me at all to take more English classes.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

6. During English class, I find myself thinking about things that have nothing to do with the
lesson.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

7. I keep thinking that the other students are better at English than I am.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

 Université Sétif2

8. I am usually at ease during tests in my English class.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

9. I start to panic when I have to speak without preparation in English class.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

10. I worry about the consequences of failing my English class.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

11. I don’t understand why some people get so upset over English classes.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

12. In English class, I can get so nervous when I forget things I know.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

13. It embarrasses me to volunteer answers in my English class.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

14. I would not be nervous speaking in the foreign language with native speakers.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

15. I get upset when I don’t understand what the teacher is correcting.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

16. Even if I am well prepared for English class, I feel anxious about it.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

17. I often feel like not going to my English class.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

18. I feel confident when I speak in English class.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

 Université Sétif2

19. I am afraid that my English teacher will correct every mistake I make.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

20. I can feel my heart pounding when I’m going to be asked to speak in English class.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

21. The more I study for an English test, the more confused I get.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

22. I don’t feel pressure to prepare very well for English class.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

23. I always feel that the other students speak English better than I do.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

24. I feel very self-conscious about speaking English in front of other students.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

25. English class moves so quickly that I worry about getting left behind.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

26. I feel more tense and nervous in my English class than in my other classes.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

27. I get nervous and confused when I am speaking in my English class.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

28. When I’m on my way to English class, I feel confident and relaxed.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

29. I get nervous when I don’t understand every word the English teacher says.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

30. I feel overwhelmed by the number of rules I have to learn to speak English.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

 Université Sétif2

31. I am afraid that the other students will laugh at me when I speak English.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

32. I would probably feel comfortable around native speakers of English.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

33. I get nervous when the English teacher asks questions which I haven’t prepared in advance.

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree

 Université Sétif2

APPENDIX C
Motivation Scale

Instruction:

The following items are helpful to indicate how motivated students are to learn English
language.
Select and circle the item that best describes your reaction.
N.B. To answer each item use the following ranking key

Not agree Somewhat agree Partially agree Mostly agree Totally agree
1 2 3 4 5

1. I won't reflect (think deeply) what I have learnt in English course.

Not agree Somewhat agree Partially agree Mostly agree Totally agree

2. Besides learning in the class, I study English on my own.

Not agree Somewhat agree Partially agree Mostly agree Totally agree

3. I grasp every opportunity to acquire English, no matter in or out of class.

Not agree Somewhat agree Partially agree Mostly agree Totally agree

4. I am not enthusiastic in learning English.

Not agree Somewhat agree Partially agree Mostly agree Totally agree

5. If there are opportunities, I will take any course related to English.

Not agree Somewhat agree Partially agree Mostly agree Totally agree

6. Learning English makes me happy.

Not agree Somewhat agree Partially agree Mostly agree Totally agree

7. I will not try to figure out the meaning of unknown word and grammar.

Not agree Somewhat agree Partially agree Mostly agree Totally agree

8. Compared with other subjects, I dislike English (it was not my choice to be in this class)

Not agree Somewhat agree Partially agree Mostly agree Totally agree

9. I dislike English.

Not agree Somewhat agree Partially agree Mostly agree Totally agree
 Université Sétif2

10. Learning English is fun.

Not agree Somewhat agree Partially agree Mostly agree Totally agree

11. Learning English is important to me.

Not agree Somewhat agree Partially agree Mostly agree Totally agree
 Université Sétif2

APPENDIX D

Anxiety towards In-Class Activity Questionnaire (ATIAQ)

A. Below are a series of descriptions related to English in-class activities. Please circle the
appropriate number that best matches your feelings about each statement.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

1 2 3 4 5

1. Read orally alone in class.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

2. Write a composition in class.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

3. Learn to sing English songs as a class after the instructor.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

4. Do exercises in the book in class.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

5. Learn English in groups of 3 or 4 in class.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

6. Make an oral presentation in front of the class.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

7. Compete in class games by teams.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

8. Repeat individually after the instructor.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

9. Practice conversation individually with instructor in class.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

10. Interview each other in pairs in class.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

 Université Sétif2

11. Work in groups of 2 or 3 and prepare a skit.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

12. Read silently in class.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

13. Take dictation test on vocabulary or text.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

14. Watch the movies and then turn in your project about the movies.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

15. Repeat as a class after the instructor.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

16. Write your work on the board.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

17. Translate English into Arabic/ French in class.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

18. Be called on to give an answer.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

19. Introduce yourself in English in front of the class.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

20. Translate Arabic/ French into English in class.

Very Relaxed Relaxed Undecided Anxious Very Anxious

 Université Sétif2

B. Below are a series of descriptions related to your English instructors’ behaviors and
characteristics. Choose the appropriate descriptions to answer questions 1 and 2. Use
the Letter (I) for question 1 and the letter (D) for question 2 to the left of each
description to identify your choice. You can choose as many descriptions for each
question as you like.

Questions

1) What behaviours and characteristics does your instructor have which tend to increase your
anxiety in English language class? (I)

2) What behaviours and characteristics does your instructor have which tend to reduce your
anxiety in English language class? (D)

Descriptions Related to Your English Instructors’ Behaviors and Characteristics

1. Instructor compliments students.

2. Students can volunteer answers and are not called on to provide responses.

3. Instructor corrects your errors in front of the class.

4. Instructor tries to fail us by using difficult tests.

5. Instructor makes students feel comfortable.

6. Instructor says that he is not going to fail the students.

7. Instructor is patient.

8. Instructor does not provide any make up test when you fail in the test.

9. Instructor says that he will fail you if you do not study hard.

10. Instructor‘s manner of correction is not harsh.

11. Instructor is rigid and never smiles in class.

12. Instructor has a good sense of humor.

13. Instructor scolds (to speak angrily to someone because he has done something wrong)
students.

14. Instructor is very friendly.

 Université Sétif2

15. Instructor has attitude that mistakes are no big deal when learning English.

16. Instructor‘s manner is relaxed.

17. Instructor often gives students a quiz without notice.

18. Instructor does not make you feel stupid when you make a mistake.

19. Instructor says that you will have no future if you don‘t have good English.

20. Instructor encourages students to speak English.

21. Instructor has attitude that mistakes are made by every one when learning English.

22. Instructor understands students.

 Université Sétif2

APPENDIX E

Self-perceived Proficiency Scale

Please circle the appropriate number that best matches your feelings about each statement.

Not agree Somewhat agree Partially agree Mostly agree Totally agree
1 2 3 4 5

1. I can converse fluently in English.

Not agree Somewhat agree Partially agree Mostly agree Totally agree

2. I think my English proficiency is low.

Not agree Somewhat agree Partially agree Mostly agree Totally agree

3. I can understand the content of English books.

Not agree Somewhat agree Partially agree Mostly agree Totally agree

4. I can understand the dialogue in movies or TV programs.

Not agree Somewhat agree Partially agree Mostly agree Totally agree

5. I can write English letters or E-mails.

Not agree Somewhat agree Partially agree Mostly agree Totally agree
 Université Sétif2

APPENDIX F

Anxiety towards Test Types Evaluation

Please circle the appropriate item that best matches your feelings about each statement.

Not anxious A little anxious Anxious Very anxious

1 2 3 4

1. Listening comprehension.

Not anxious A little anxious Anxious Very anxious

2. Reading comprehension test (time limited).

Not anxious A little anxious Anxious Very anxious

3. Reading comprehension test (no time limited).

Not anxious A little anxious Anxious Very anxious

4. Writing test (time limited).

Not anxious A little anxious Anxious Very anxious

5. Writing test (no time limited).

Not anxious A little anxious Anxious Very anxious

6. Oral test (in which the instructor scores).

Not anxious A little anxious Anxious Very anxious

7. Oral test (by tape recorder or computer/ Language lab).

Not anxious A little anxious Anxious Very anxious

8. Grammar test.

Not anxious A little anxious Anxious Very anxious

 Université Sétif2

Appendix G
Strategies used by learners to cope with language anxiety

Hauck and Hurd (2005) offered a list of eleven strategies to deal with language anxiety to their
research respondents (n=48). They were asked to tick strategies that applied to them and then
select the most important one. The strategies were:

1. Use positive self-talk (e.g. I can do it; it doesn't matter if I make mistakes; others make
mistakes).

2. Actively encourage myself to take risks in language learning, such as guessing meanings or
trying to speak, even though I might make some mistakes.

3. Imagine that when I am speaking in front of others, it is just a friendly informal chat.

4. Tell myself when I speak that it won't take long.

5. Give myself a reward or treat when I do well.

6. Be aware of physical signs of stress that might affect my language learning.

7. Write down my feelings in a day or notebook.

8. Share my worries with other students.

9. Let my tutor know that I am anxious.

10. Use relaxation techniques e.g. deep breathing, consciously speaking more

slowly, etc.

11. Other.

Figure 9: Most important strategies. Source: Hauck and Hurd (2005).Retrieved October30,
2010.From: http://www.eurodl.org/materials/contrib/2005/Mirjam_Hauck.htm
 Université Sétif2

Résumé
La présente dissertation, au total quatre chapitres, vise à investiguer les facteurs affectifs et
pédagogiques affectant l’apprentissage de l’anglais comme langue étrangère avec une mise d’accent sur
l’anxiété linguistique parmi les étudiants de la deuxième année anglais de l’université 20 Août 1955 de
Skikda, Algérie. Les sources, impacts et façons pour remédier à l’anxiété linguistique, si tant est qu’elle
est prouvée problème, sont les buts généraux de l’étude. Cette recherche tente d’étudier le côté affectif
ainsi que les conditions d’apprentissage dans cette catégorie d’apprenants d’anglais comme langue
étrangère. Dans cette perspective, les différents facteurs affectifs qui ont montré, à travers la recherche et
l’investigation, un poids et impact considérables sur l’apprenant d’anglais, son processus d’apprentissage,
les compétences langagières ainsi que sa performance et son progrès en classe, sont décrits.
Ce travail tente également d’explorer l’attitude et le caractère de l’enseignant, l’atmosphère de
l’apprentissage ainsi que les activités pédagogiques et les types d’examens qui sont susceptibles d’une
façon ou d’une autre d’augmenter ou d’atténuer l’anxiété expérimentée par l’apprenant.
Ce travail a été mené à l’aide d’une batterie de six questionnaires qui ont été adressé à cinquante
et un (51) étudiants de la deuxième année d’anglais de l’université 20 Août à Skikda.
Les résultats de cette étude montrent que l’appréhension de la communication est la catégorie
d’anxiété dont souffrent la majorité d’apprenants en premier lieu suivi par l’anxiété des examens.
Statistiquement parlant, les facteurs affectifs tel que - l’autoévaluation des compétences, la motivation, la
réalisation ou la réussite scolaire, la compétence communicative, le temps passé à étudier l’anglais hors
les heures de classe par semaine et le genre de personnalité – ont prouvé avoir une corrélation
significative avec les niveaux d’anxiété expérimentés par les apprenants d’anglais langue étrangère, d’une
part.. D’autre part, l’environnement de l’apprentissage tel que l’attitude et le comportement de
l’enseignant, les activités pédagogiques administrées en classe ainsi que les types d’examens sont
cruciaux pour créer un apprenant stressé ou détendu. Il s’est avéré qu’un enseignant rigide et sévère, les
activités et examens oraux exposant l’apprenant directement à ses camarades sont les conditions les plus
favorables de subir l’anxiété langagière dans ses plus hauts niveaux débilitants. Pour réduire la tension
due à ce phénomène, plusieurs dispositifs sont proposés entre autres : la création d’une atmosphère saine
pour l’apprentissage, la redéfinition du rôle de l’enseignant en classe, l’activation du rôle de l’apprenant,
et la révision des méthodes d’évaluation.
 Université Sétif2

ǎƼË ǴǷ

ΔϳϟΎόϔϧϻ΍ ϝϣ΍ϭόϟΎΑ ϪΗϗϼϋ ϭ ϱϭϐϠϟ΍ έΗϭΗϟ΍ Δγ΍έΩ ϰϟ· ΔόΑέϷ΍ ϪϟϭλϔΑ ΙΣΑϟ΍ ΍Ϋϫ ϑΩϬϳ
Εϭ΃ 20 ΔόϣΎΟΑ ΔϳίϳϠΟϧ· Δϐϟ ΔϳϧΎΛϟ΍ Δϧγϟ΍ ΔΑϠρ ϯΩϟ ΔϳΑϧΟ΃ ΔϐϠϛ ΔϳίϳϠΟϧϹ΍ ϡϳϠόΗ ϲϓ ΓέΛ΅ϣϟ΍ ΔϳΟϭϏ΍ΩϳΑϟ΍ ϭ
ΔϘΑΎγϟ΍ ΙϭΣΑϟ΍ ΕΗΑΛ΃ ϲΗϟ΍ ΔϳϟΎόϔϧϻ΍ ϝϣ΍ϭόϟ΍ ϑϠΗΧϣ ϑλϭΑ Ύϧϣϗ ˬΎϧϓΩϫ ϕϳϘΣΗ ϝΟ΃ ϥϣ ϭ .ΓΩϛϳϛγ 1955
Ϫ΋΍Ω΃ έϭρΗ ΍Ϋϛ ϭ ΔϳϭϐϠϟ΍ Ε΍έΎϬϣϟ΍ ˬϪΑΎόϳΗγ΍ ΔϘϳέρ ˬϡϠόΗϣϟ΍ ϯΩϟ ΔϐϠϟ΍ ϡϠόΗ έΎγϣ ϰϠϋ ΍έΑΗόϣ ΍έϳΛ΄Η ΎϬϟ ϥ΃
.ϡγϘϟΎΑ
ϡΎόϟ΍ ϭΟϟ΍ ˬϡγϘϟ΍ ϝΧ΍Ω ΫΎΗγϷ΍ ΕΎϓέλΗ ϭ ΕΎϔλ΍ϭϣ ϰϠϋ ˯ϭοϟ΍ ρϠγϧ Ύοϳ΃ ϝϣόϟ΍ ΍Ϋϫ ϝϼΧ ϥϣ
ΔϘϳέρΑ ΎϬϟ ϥϛϣϳ ϲΗϟ΍ ΕΎϧΎΣΗϣϻ΍ Δϳϋϭϧ ΍Ϋϛ ϭ ΔϳΟϭϏ΍ΩϳΑϟ΍ ΔρηϧϷ΍ ϭ ϥϳέΎϣΗϟ΍ ˬϡϳϠόΗϟ΍ ΔϳϠϣϋ Ϫϳϓ ϡΗΗ ϱΫϟ΍
.ϡϠόΗϣϟ΍ ϯΩϟ ϱϭϐϠϟ΍ έΗϭΗϟ΍ ϯϭΗγϣ ϥϣ νϔΧΗ ϭ΃ ΩϳίΗ ϥ΃ ϯέΧ΄Α ϭ΃
ΔϐϠϟ΍ ϡγϘΑ ΎΑϟΎρ ϥϳγϣΧ ϭ ΩΣ΍ϭ ϰϟ· ΕϬΟϭ ΔϠ΋γ΃ Ε΍έΎϣΗγ΍ Εγ ϝϼΧ ϥϣ ϝϣόϟ΍ ΍Ϋϫ ίΟϧ΃
.ΔϳίϳϠΟϧϹ΍
ϲϧΎόϳ ϲΗϟ΍ έΗϭΗϟ΍ ωϭέϓ ΩΣ΃ ϲϫ έηΎΑϣϟ΍ ΙϳΩΣϟ΍ ϭ ϝλ΍ϭΗϟ΍ ϥϣ ϑϭΧϟ΍ ϥ΃ ΙΣΑϟ΍ ΍Ϋϫ Ξ΋ΎΗϧ έϬυΗ
.ΕΎϧΎΣΗϣϻ΍ ϥϣ ϑϭΧϟΎΑ ΎϋϭΑΗϣ ΢ο΍ϭ ϝϛηΑ ΔΑϠρϟ΍ ΎϬϧϣ
ˬϲγ΍έΩϟ΍ ϕϭϔΗϟ΍ ˬίϳϔΣΗϟ΍ ˬΔϳϭϐϠϟ΍ ΓέΎϬϣϟ΍ ϯϭΗγϣϟ ϲΗ΍Ϋϟ΍ ϡϳϳϘΗϟ΍ :ΔϳϟΎΗϟ΍ ΔϳΩέϔϟ΍ ϝϣ΍ϭόϟ΍ ϲλϘΗ ϥ΃ Ύϣϛ
– ΔϳλΧηϟ΍ Δϳϋϭϧ ΍Ϋϛϭ ΎϳϋϭΑγ΃ ϡγϘϟ΍ ΝέΎΧ ΔϐϠϟ΍ Δγ΍έΩ ϲϓ ϡϠόΗϣϟ΍ ϪϳοϘϳ ϱΫϟ΍ Εϗϭϟ΍ ˬϝλ΍ϭΗϟ΍ ΓέΎϬϣ
ΔϬΟ ϥϣ ϭ ˬΔϬΟ ϥϣ ΍Ϋϫ ΏϟΎρϟ΍ ΎϬϟ νέόΗϳ ϲΗϟ΍ ϱϭϐϠϟ΍ έΗϭΗϟ΍ ΕΎϳϭΗγϣ ϊϣ ΓΩϳρϭ Δϗϼϋ ΎϬϟ ϥ΃ ΕΗΑΛ΃
Δϳϋϭϧ ˬΫΎΗγϷ΍ Ε΍ίϳϣϣ ˬϡϳϠόΗϟ΍ ΔϳϠϣϋ Ϫϳϓ ϡΗΗ ϱΫϟ΍ ϡΎόϟ΍ ϭΟϟ΍ ϲϓ ΔϠΛϣΗϣϟ΍ ΔϳΟϭϏ΍ΩϳΑϟ΍ ϝϣ΍ϭόϟ΍ ϥΈϓ ΔϳϧΎΛ
.ργΑϧϣ ϭ΃ έΗϭΗϣ ϡϠόΗϣ ϕϠΧϟ ΏΎΑγϷ΍ ϡϫ΃ ϥϣ ΔϘΑρϣϟ΍ ΕΎϧΎΣΗϣϻ΍ ϭ ΔρηϧϷ΍
ΏΎΑγϷ΍ ϡϫ΃ ϥϣ ΔϳϬϔηϟ΍ ΕΎϧΎΣΗϣϻ΍ ϭ ϥϳέΎϣΗϟ΍ ϰϟ· ΔϓΎο· ϲγΎϘϟ΍ ϭ ϡϬϔΗϣϟ΍ έϳϏ ΫΎΗγϷ΍ έΑΗόϳ Ύϣϛ
ϭΟ ϕϠΧ ΏΟϳ ΎϬΗΎόΑΗ ϥϣ ϝϳϠϘΗϟ΍ ϭ΃ ΔϳΑϠγϟ΍ ΓέϫΎυϟ΍ ϩΫϫ ϲϓ ϡϛΣΗϠϟ .έΗϭΗϟ΍ ΕΎϳϭΗγϣ ϰϠϋ΃ ϰϟ· ϱΩ΅Η ϲΗϟ΍
ϡϳϳϘΗϟ΍ ΏϳϟΎγ΃ ΔόΟ΍έϣ ϰϟ· ΔϓΎοϹΎΑ ϡϠόΗϣϟ΍ έϭΩ ϝϳόϔΗ ˬΫΎΗγϷ΍ έϭΩ ϡϭϬϔϣ ΩϳΩΣΗ ΓΩΎϋ· ˬ ϡϠόΗϠϟ ϊΗϣϣ
.ϥΎΣΗϣϻ΍ ϭ